Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran backs the “resistance” in Lebanon during a phone call with an Iranian official.
Iran is talking up the “resistance” ahead of a possible ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, stressing that it backs the Lebanese “people and government.” Iran sent a medical mission to Lebanon this week as part of that show of support, but behind the scenes, Iran continues to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah.
“Speaking in a phone call with the special representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the West Asian region, Mohammad Reza Ra’ouf Sheibani, Araghchi praised the Resistance Front, especially the resistance of the Lebanese people in recent weeks against the Zionist regime’s army,” Iran’s state media IRNA said on Tuesday.
“He also commended the courage of the resistance fighters in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Sheibani presented a report on the latest efforts to stop the Zionist regime’s aggression against Lebanon and to establish a ceasefire.”
The ceasefire will be important for Iran and the region and could be a turning point. This is because Iran has sought to link Hezbollah to Gaza so that it was forced to enter the war against Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7.
Even though Hezbollah supports Hamas, it is believed not to have known the exact timing of the attack, and as such, Hezbollah may have been pre-empted and drawn into a war at a time it did not choose. Hezbollah then sought to create an equation with Israel where Hezbollah carved out a “right” to attack northern Israel after Israel attacked some Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.
That all changed in mid-September when Israel vowed to return its citizens to the North to areas threatened by Hezbollah. Since then, Israel has launched a ground operation in Lebanon to clear Hezbollah from the border.
On Tuesday, the military released photos of the head of IDF’s Northern Command at the Litani River. He is literally putting his boots where Hezbollah once was. This is supposed to be a symbolic victory photo. Israel has reached the proverbial Rubicon and has turned back toward a ceasefire. At least, that’s what the reports indicate.
Iran weighing its own Rubicon
Iran is also weighing its own Rubicon, the river in northern Italy, which Caesar reached before he marched on Rome 2,000 years ago. Iran may now move towards nuclear armament. It may also seek to push its proxies in Iraq and Syria to strike at Israel or increase threats to the Golan.
If there is a 60-day period for the ceasefire, Iran will have much to do because the 60 days coincides roughly with the lead-up to US president-elect Donald Trump taking office. The next weeks will be important to see which way Iran heads. Does it focus internally on nuclear weapons, or does it seek to push its proxies to escalate attacks on Israel?
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