IRGC confirms martyrdom of senior commander in Beirut raid
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday confirmed that its military advisor Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday, in which the secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement also lost his life.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a letter to IRGC Chief Commander Major General Hossein Salami, said the death of Nilforoushan, the deputy commander for operations of the IRGC, “will not go unanswered.”
“This vicious and cowardly act is another clear sign of the terrorist and criminal nature of the Zionist regime and its notorious supporters,” Araghchi said.
“The diplomatic apparatus will also use all its political, diplomatic, legal and international capacities to pursue the criminals and their backers,” he added.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also said Israel has gone on an assassination spree against resistance commanders in a desperate effort to prevent its demise.
The terrorist act came almost a year into Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and deadly aerial assaults on Lebanon.
“The Zionist enemy has not achieved its objectives and it has been defeated [on the battlefield], thus it has begun assassinations to survive and avert its demise,” he said during an open parliamentary session.
“It is not the Zionist regime that has the upper hand, but on the contrary, it has adopted the tactical methods of assassination and psychological warfare in an act of desperation … to compensate for strategic setbacks.”
Some other Iranian officials also condemned the assassinations.
On Sunday, Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said a response “will occur at the appropriate time and at Iran’s choice, and decisions will definitely be made at the leadership level, at the highest level of the state,” IRNA reported.
The Israeli military has claimed it killed “more than 20” Hezbollah members of varying ranks during its attack on Friday.
Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the killing of Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, who was also targeted in an Israeli raid on the southern suburb of Beirut.