Iran Condemns Israel For Assassination Of Senior Hezbollah Commander In Beirut

Iran on Monday sharply condemned Israel for the killing of Hezbollah’s military chief, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, who died a day earlier in a targeted strike in Beirut. In a statement, the Iranian foreign ministry denounced what it called “the cowardly assassination of the great commander of the Lebanese Islamic Resistance, the martyr Haytham Ali Tabatabai.”

Tabatabai is the highest-ranking Hezbollah official to be killed by Israel since the November 2024 ceasefire, which aimed to end more than a year of escalating hostilities. Tehran said the killing “constitutes a flagrant violation of the November 2024 ceasefire and a brutal breach of Lebanon’s national sovereignty.”

Hezbollah confirmed the death of Tabatabai, who, despite being little known to the Lebanese public, was among a new cadre of commanders elevated after the recent war.

Israel has continued launching strikes on Lebanon since the truce, often asserting that its targets are Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure. The group, traditionally supported by Tehran, has been significantly weakened in recent years—both by its confrontation with Israel and by the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who once provided a crucial land route between Lebanon and Iran.

These setbacks have also strained Iran, which suffered Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities during a 12-day conflict with Israel earlier this year.