Iran and Hezbollah condemned Israel for the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Tehran’s most important ally in the Middle East, on Sept. 27, 2024. Hezbollah responded with barrages of rockets in subsequent days. Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem pledged to continue the fight against Israel. “Despite the loss of our leaders and the great sacrifices, we won’t budge an inch from our stances.”
He warned that Hezbollah was prepared for a ground invasion. “We will win, just as we won in our confrontation with Israel in 2006,” he said in a video message on September 30. Hezbollah did not immediately name a successor.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lauded Nasrallah’s “unparalleled” leadership and declared five days of public mourning on September 28. Yet he stopped short of pledging direct retaliation. Instead, Khamenei said that attacks by the Tehran-led Axis of Resistance – a network of militias across the Middle East – will “become even more crushing.” Iran’s foreign ministry clarified that Iran would deploy forces abroad to confront Israel. “There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on September 30.
Other militias in the axis – including the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Asaib Ahl al Haq in Iraq, and others – offered condolences and pledged support to Hezbollah. The following are reactions by Iran and its allies.
Hezbollah
Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem
Sept. 30, 2024: “Hezbollah will go on with its goals and its battle. Our system of command and control as well as the mujahideen (fighters) will continue to follow up and implement the alternative plans accurately, just like the late secretary general used to do. All are ready in the battlefield.”
“The Israeli enemy is committing crimes and massacres all over Lebanon, and every house has the traces of the Israeli aggression. Israel attacks both civilians and medics. They are not fighters. It attacks everyone who walks in the streets and, everyone who stays in the houses.”
“Despite the loss of our leaders and the great sacrifices, we won’t budge an inch from our stances.”
“We have sacrificed a lot since the pager operations, the martyrdom of the commanders and the martyrdom of the leader. If this happens anywhere else with any organization across the world, it will collapse, but we did not. We are going on despite the pains and the sacrifices. We are going on because we have the hope and we trust Allah almighty to be victorious. We are the people of jihad.”
“Hezbollah’s operations have continued at the same pace, and more.”
“Ma’ale Adumim, some 150 kilometers away from the Lebanese border was targeted. Elsewhere in Haifa, a million Israeli settlers went to shelters.”
“I would like to tell you that what we are doing now is the minimum as part of our plan to run the battle.”
“We are quite ready, if the Israelis want a ground incursion, the resistance forces are ready for that.”
“We will win, just as we won in our confrontation with Israel in 2006.”
“We will choose the secretary general for Hezbollah sooner rather than later, according to the mechanism that we have in place.”
Iran
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Sept. 28, 2024: “The great Mujahid, the standard-bearer of Resistance in the region, a virtuous scholar of religion, and a wise political leader – Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah (may God be pleased with him) – achieved martyrdom in last night's tragic events in Lebanon and has ascended to the heavens. The dear Sayyid of the Resistance has received his reward for his decades of jihad on the path of God and enduring hardships in a sacred struggle.
“He was martyred while busy making plans for defending the defenseless people of Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood, their destroyed homes, and their lost loved ones. He had also planned, strategized, and fought for decades for the oppressed people of Palestine, their occupied cities and villages, their homes that had been destroyed, and their loved ones who had been massacred. After all his struggles, the reward of martyrdom was his rightful recompense.
“The Islamic world has lost a noble figure, the Resistance Front has lost an eminent standard-bearer, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah has lost an unparalleled leader. However, the blessings from his decades of planning and jihad will never be lost. The foundation that Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah established in Lebanon and the direction he provided to other centers of Resistance will not be destroyed as a result of his martyrdom, but rather it will also be strengthened due to his sacrifice and that of the other martyrs of this event.
“By the grace and power of God, the blows struck by the Resistance Front on the worn-out, deteriorating body of the Zionist regime will become even more crushing. The foul-natured Zionist regime has not become victorious by carrying out this atrocity. The Sayyid of the Resistance was not just one person. He was a path and a school of thought, and his path will continue. Sayyid Abbas Mousavi’s blood that was spilled on the ground wasn’t without an effect, and the same will be true about that of Martyr Sayyid Hassan.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian
Sept. 30, 2024: “The world should know that the blood of this noble martyr and his companions will continue to boil and stand up against oppression and oppression, and America and the supporters of the Zionist regime showed the world how human rights, human dignity and international laws are violated and terrorists and criminals The supporters of human rights are called terrorists in contrast to oppressors and supporters of the oppressed.
“Shame on this interpretation and interpretation of the false supporters of humanity and freedom, and let the dear people of Palestine and Lebanon know that Iran and the right-seeking people will continue to stand with them.”
Sept. 30, 2024: “If the arrogant think that with the assassination of the generals and fighters of the resistance, the science of fighting oppression, aggression and crime will remain on the ground, they are very wrong, and we will stand against oppression and crime with strength, and we are sure that our brothers and all Muslims. And the free people of the world do not rest in the face of oppression.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
Sept. 30, 2024: “Nasrallah mocked the myth of invincibility of the West’s military technologies.”
“He steadily turned the dream of the satanic entity into a nightmare over three decades.”
“Now, he has the honor of martyrdom for the sake of al-Quds as he always wanted. There is no doubt that his blood will be a sign of the victory of right over wrong.”
Sept. 29, 2024: “Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, proud leader of the Lebanese resistance against occupation and aggression for three decades, is now greater than ever: a great martyr whose blood will guarantee continuation of Hezbollah's just cause.”
“Assassinating resistance leaders only reconfirms the unchanging fact that evil and genocidal occupying entity will never take root in our region. It only confirms it.”
Sept. 28, 2024: “Undoubtedly, the blood of this great man will further strengthen the already robust resistance.”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sept. 29, 2024: “His Excellency Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Lebanon’s Islamic resistance movement, Hezbollah, was a descendant of the true leaders of Mujahideen in the path of Allah, who spent his blessed life in the path of struggle and jihad against the front of the devils and the enemies of the glowing and divine teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the path and traditions of the Great Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the Prophet’s Household (peace be upon them) and in supporting and defending the oppressed people in Lebanon and Palestine against the global arrogance and the vile lineage of Zionism, and at the end of this shining path, joined the numerous proud martyrs of defending the holy cause of the liberation of Palestine and cherished Al-Quds by the most cruel enemies of humanity.
“The honorable Martyr Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah continued the brilliant path of prominent resistance leaders, like Martyr Seyyed Abbas Mousavi. His acuity and intelligence coupled with courage and bravery turned him into an insightful leader and a courageous and brave fighter whose every word and action would shake the spider’s web of the Zionist criminal gang and leave a sweet taste in the mouth of Muslim and free nations of the world with the repeated defeats of the Zionist occupiers, from their expulsion and humiliating retreat from southern Lebanon to the disgraceful failure in the 33-day war, and foiled the conspiracy of the enemies against the Islamic nation to change the map of West Asia and gave a new lease of life to the resistance front against Zionism and global arrogance and became a source of pride for the Muslim world.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while strongly condemning the Zionist regime’s criminal moves to commit war crimes and breach Lebanon’s territorial integrity, stresses that the US government is directly responsible and complicit in the Zionist regime’s crime as a supporter and accomplice in continuing to commit various international crimes and terrorist acts.
“It is evident that the repercussions of this brutal terrorist act will be aimed at the criminal Zionist regime and its supporters, with the US regime on top of them.
“The Iranian government and people’s principled and strategic stance in their firm and all-out support for the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon and the entire West Asia against the invaders and aggressors will continue with full force until the termination of the occupation and the restoration of the right to self-determination and the realization of the sacred cause of the liberation of Palestine and the beloved Al-Quds. And without a doubt, the Zionists' inhumane moves and escalation of brutality by assassinating the leaders of the resistance will step up the determination of the Iranian nation and government to support the oppressed people.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses that the continuation of committing international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and aggression, by the Zionist regime, indicates the terrorist and criminal nature of the Zionist officials and their supporters which will never go unpunished. Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will implement all its political, diplomatic, legal and international capacities to support the heroic people of Palestine and Lebanon in regional and international assemblies and will stand by Palestine and Lebanon to punish the aggressors.”
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian
Oct. 1, 2024: “As we defended Hezbollah during the time of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, we will continue to defend it afterwards.”
“This confrontation began with the resistance front’s action, not the enemy’s. And since then, the enemy has been reacting in desperation, portraying itself to be successful with psychological operations.”
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani
Sept. 30, 2024: “There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Fighters in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression.”
“We have not received any request in this regard from any side. On the contrary, we are informed and are sure that they do not need the help of our forces.”
Israel “will not remain without reprimand and punishment for the crimes it has committed against the Iranian people, military personnel and the resistance forces.”
Hamas
Sept. 28, 2024: Israeli assassinations “will only increase the determination and the insistence of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon.”
The resistance in Palestine and Lebanon will “go forward with all their might, bravery and pride on the footsteps of the martyrs... and pursue the path of resistance until victory and the dismissal of the occupation.”
Nasrallah’s “pure blood that was shed on Lebanese soil…will be a curse that haunts this Zionist enemy and will illuminate and extend the path of our people and our resistance, which knows no defeat or surrender.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Sept. 28, 2024: Israel will “pay the price of its crimes, and taste defeat for what its sinful hands have done."
Nasrallah’s death “will only strengthen the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and the region with more power, resilience, and determination.”
Houthis
Supreme Political Council
Sept. 28, 2024: Nasrallah’s death “will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of determination and the resolve to continue.”
“The inevitable outcome will be victory and the demise of the ‘Israeli’ enemy and its temporal entity.”
Asaib Ahl al Haq
Sheikh Qais al Khazali
Sept. 28, 2024: “With a mixture of great pride and deep sorrow, we received the news of the martyrdom of the master of the Islamic Resistance, and the title of its victory and pride, the proof of Islam and Muslims, the martyred leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of the Islamic Resistance Hezbollah in Lebanon, following a brutal, treacherous and cowardly Zionist bombing.”
“His soul rose to God, after an honorable life spent as a fighter and victorious leader, inflicting bitter defeats on the occupying Zionists, and achieving victories that modern history has never witnessed, and shattering the myth of the army of the usurping entity, as well as creating a generation of invincible resistance fighters. Here he is joining the martyrs among them, to be with them under the tent of his grandfather Imam Hussein (peace be upon him).”
“We extend our deepest condolences and sympathies on this great loss, in which we have lost a leader and a resistance fighter who has no equal in modern history.”
“We renew our pledge to his pure soul and the souls of all the righteous martyrs, to continue on his path and to persevere in resisting the occupying enemies until achieving all the goals for which the earth was cleansed with pure blood, and until the liberation of all the usurped land from the criminal Zionist presence, and the elimination of the cancerous tumor - Israel - from the body of this nation, and the end of any foreign military presence on the land of our beloved country.”