Iran to stand by Hezbollah ‘until the liberation of Jerusalem’: Quds Force chief

Iran will stand by Hezbollah “until the liberation of Jerusalem,” the commander of Iran’s Quds Force said on Sunday, following the killing of the Lebanon-based group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, by Israel.

“God willing, we will remain by your side in continuing [Nasrallah’s] path until the conquest of Palestine and the liberation of Jerusalem,” state news agency IRNA quoted Esmail Qaani as saying in a statement.

Qaani leads the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday. Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior IRGC commander, was also among those killed in the strike.

Iran has been arming and funding Hezbollah for decades, with the Lebanese Shia group widely regarded as the most powerful of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East.

On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed that Israel’s killing of Nilforoushan “will not go unanswered.”