Iran will not leave Israel’s ‘criminal acts’ unanswered, says foreign ministry
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Iran will not leave any of “the criminal acts” of Israel unanswered, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, referring to the killing of Hezbollah’s chief and an Iranian Guard deputy commander in Lebanon.
Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also died.
Israel’s intensified attacks against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the Houthi militia in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel’s main ally.
“We stand strongly and we will act in a way that is regretful [for the enemy]” Kanaani told a weekly news conference, adding that Iran does not seek war but is not afraid of it.
Kanaani said that Iran is closely following up on matters with the Lebanese authorities, referring to the strikes that killed Nasrallah and Nilforoushan.
The Lebanese government is ready to fully implement a UN resolution that had aimed to end Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River as part of an agreement to stop war with Israel, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
Mikati said Lebanon was ready to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and deploy the army south of the river, which lies about 30 km (around 20 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.
Mikati also said he and House Speaker Nabih Berri had agreed that electing a new president to end a near two-year vacancy at the top post would only happen after a ceasefire took hold, in comments delivered after the pair met in Beirut.
