Iran’s State-Censored Media Reacts to Assassination of Hezbollah Leader

While Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other regime officials vow to avenge the assassination of Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, there is no specific sign if and how Iran will react. 

• September 28: Khamenei’s official website released a statement from the supreme leader on the assassination of Nasrallah:  
  • “The world of Islam has lost a great individual, the Resistance Front is bereaved of a prominent standard bearer, and Lebanese Hezbollah mourns the loss of a peerless leader, but the blessings of his decadeslong efforts remain. He established a foundation in Lebanon, which will survive, thrive, and be more consolidated … The Seyyed of the Resistance was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought – a path that will continue.”  
• September 28: President Masoud Pezeshkian’s official website released a statement from the president:  
  • “The world will never forget that this terrorist deed was commanded from New York, and the Americans can’t free themselves from their collaboration with the Zionists.” 
• September 28: Nour News Agency, mouthpiece of the Supreme National Security Council, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter:  
  • “Due to unprecedented crimes of the Zionist regime, directly assisted by the United States, the region is in a trajectory where the argument can be made that the price of fighting a war is significantly lower than not fighting.” 
• September 28: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Chief Commander Major General Hossein Salami vowed to avenge the assassination of Nasrallah, as quoted by IRGC mouthpiece Mashregh News. 
• September 28: Columnist Abd-Allah Motevallian wrote for IRGC mouthpiece Javan in a piece on Nasrallah’s assassination that “Hezbollah is alive.” 
• September 28: Kayhan newspaper, mouthpiece of Khamenei, dedicated an editorial to praising Nasrallah:  
  • “Hezbollah is a movement and not an individual. Martyrdom of Seyyed Abbas Mousavi,” Hezbollah co-founder and secretary general until his assassination in 1992, “was a hard blow to Hezbollah, but the organization renewed itself and blossomed … The Seyyed of the Resistance was not an individual but a path and a school of thought. This path will continue. The blood of Seyyed Abbas Mousavi did not remain unavenged, and the blood of martyr Seyyed Hassan too will not remain unavenged.” 
• September 28: Mohammad Irani, former ambassador to Lebanon, explained the changed rules of the game in a column in reformist Shargh Daily: 
  • “Lebanese Hezbollah is a disciplined organization … and it is not difficult to find a leader continuing the path of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah … Israel’s actions betray Netanyahu’s plan to increase tensions in Lebanon … The rules of the game have changed … and Washington appears to have greenlighted Israeli attacks against Lebanese Hezbollah’s leadership … Despite the losses, Hezbollah will manage to reorganize.” 
• September 28: Mohammad Ali Sobhani, former ambassador to Lebanon, said in an interview with reformist Etemad newspaper: 
  • “There exists an unwritten agreement between” former President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “aiming at entangling the entire region in a war so that Trump can win the presidential election in the United States … It is not the case that Hezbollah can’t replace martyr Nasrallah … but until the election in the United States, we should follow a path that prevents a regionwide war, the outcome of which is not known … The Israelis are trying to entangle the United States in a regional war.” 
• September 28: IRGC mouthpiece Mashregh News reported that Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, IRGC operations chief, was “martyred along with Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah” in Beirut. The news agency further disclosed Nilforoushan had served in Lebanon and Syria for the past five years. 

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