Iran backs ‘simultaneous’ cease-fire efforts in Gaza, Lebanon
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday said Tehran backs efforts for a simultaneous cease-fire by the Israeli regime in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
“We support the efforts for a cease-fire, provided that first, the rights of the Lebanese people are respected and it is accepted by the (Hezbollah) resistance, and second, that it comes simultaneously with a cease-fire in Gaza,” he said during an unannounced visit to Beirut.
Addressing reporters in the Lebanese capital, Araghchi also promised harsher retaliation if Israel strikes Iran in response to the country’s Tuesday missile attack on the regime’s military sites. He said the attack was “legitimate self-defense based on the UN Charter.”
“Unlike Israel, which targets residential areas, we only attacked military centers,” Araghchi said. “We do not intend to continue the attacks unless the Zionist regime chooses to continue its attacks.”
The remarks came after the Islamic Republic launched hundreds of missiles towards Israel’s military, espionage and intelligence bases all over the occupied Palestinian territories as part of Operation True Promise II on October 1.
The attacks were in response to the regime’s deadly aggression against Lebanon and other regional nations as well as targeted killing of leaders of the resistance front, including Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
Araghchi said his presence in Beirut at a time when the regime was taking the city under constant aggression, indicated Iran’s “continued strong and steadfast” support for the Lebanese nation and resistance.
Since late last month, Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon, including ground operations in its southern regions.
Five days of ground invasion and two weeks of airstrikes by the regime in Lebanon has killed more than 2,000 people, the Lebanon’s health ministry said. More than 1 million people have been driven from their homes, including tens of thousands under Israel’s evacuation orders in almost 100 border towns and villages.
The Lebanese resistance group said it shelled Israeli troops in a border area of south Lebanon on Friday, in the latest such clash on the frontier.
Several Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the attacks.