Iran’s Mission to UN Outlines Retaliation Plans:

Striking ‘Broader, Deeper’ Israeli Targets

Date: 03 August 2024 - 22:06

News ID: ۱۳۰۰۵۱

TEHRAN -- Iran said on
Saturday it expects Lebanon’s Hezbollah to strike deeper inside the Israeli occupied territories and no longer be confined to military targets after the Zionist regime assassinated Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr.
The warning comes amid a major escalation in the area and continued cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah. But a strike claimed by Israel in a crowded residential area of South Beirut changed the Lebanese resistance group’s calculus, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations said that until now, Hezbollah has limited itself according to an “unwritten understanding” with Israel “confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives.”
“However, the Zionist regime’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut and the targeting of a residential building marked a deviation from these boundaries. We anticipate that, in its response, Hezbollah will choose both broader and deeper targets, and will not restrict itself solely to military targets and means,” the spokesperson said.
Asked to clarify where these targets might be, the Iranian Mission to the UN said they would be within the territory occupied by Israel.
The strike on Tuesday martyred Shukr. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, five civilians — three women and two children — also died.
Hours after Shukr’s assassination, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in a pre-dawn explosion in his accommodation in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said.
On Thursday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel and “those who are behind it must await our inevitable response” to the assassinations of both Shukr and Haniyeh.
Nasrallah warned that Israel had crossed “red lines” and the conflict had “entered a new phase”, adding, “The response will come, whether spread out or simultaneously.”
Iran and Hamas have also vowed to retaliate. Hezbollah took part in a retaliatory attack by Tehran on April 13 that saw more than 300 drones and missiles launched at Israeli targets, mainly from Iranian territory as well as from its other allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The attack came several days after an Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1 that martyred several Iranian military commanders.
Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of 150,000 missiles and rockets, including some with long ranges that collectively
have the potential to overwhelm Israel’s “Iron Dome” anti-missile system and could hit deep inside the Israeli-occupied territory.
Israel’s military, still embroiled in the conflict against Hamas in Gaza, has raised concerns that it would not be able to sustain fighting a war on two fronts, in the south and north.
An Israeli official told CBS News that the Zionist regime is anticipating a “more aggressive” retaliation, one that could even go beyond the occupied territory to target Israeli assets abroad.
Asked what Israel is expecting Tehran’s response will be, another Israeli official told CBS News, “that’s for Iran to decide.”
On Saturday, incoming rocket sirens were activated in the Western Galilee settlement of Matat, with at least one rocket exploding in an open area.
On Saturday, the Kayhan daily said retaliatory operations were expected to be “more diverse, more dispersed and impossible to intercept.”
“This time, areas such as Tel Aviv and Haifa and the strategic centers and especially residences of some officials involved in the recent crimes are among the targets,” the Persian-language paper said in an opinion piece.