Iran’s Supreme Leader Rushed To Secure Location After Israel Kills Hezbollah Leaders (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/TEHRAN (Worthy News) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been taken to a secure location inside Iran amid fears he might be next on Israel’s target list after Israel killed the head of Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in a strike on Beirut, Worthy News monitored late Saturday.
It was seen as the latest show of nervousness by the Iranian authorities following Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning to Tehran that his nation’s military could reach any place in the Islamic Republic.
Israel launched a series of devastating attacks on Hezbollah, Iran’s best-armed and most well-equipped ally in the region.
As part of the ongoing campaign, the Israeli military also confirmed Saturday it killed a senior member of Hezbollah’s intelligence in a strike on southern Beirut on Saturday, naming him as Hassan Khalil Yassin.
It said Yassin was killed in a strike in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut and that he was “responsible for the identification of civilian and military targets on the northern border and deep within Israeli territory.”
The Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh is where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed and where, in January, deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated by a drone strike, for which Israel did not claim responsibility.
Amid the clashes, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, the ideological guardians of the Islamic Republic, ordered all of its members to stop using any type of communication devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah blew up earlier this month.
MORE TENSIONS
Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel was behind the pager and walkie-talkie attacks that killed dozens and injured thousands. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed it was responsible for the attack.
There were further signs of rapidly escalating tensions as Khamenei urged Muslims to unite and confront Israel after the killing of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
His appeal came as air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and loud bangs were heard after a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted, the Israeli military said.
Yemen’s Houthi militants said they had fired a ballistic missile at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The Houthis said the attack was timed to coincide with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu from the United Nations in New York.
“The resistance will not be broken, and the Jihadist spirit of the Mujahideen brothers in Lebanon and on all fronts of support will grow stronger and bigger,” the Houthis said.
SECOND ATTACK
It is the second time in two days that the Houthis have launched an attack on Israel as they mourned their fellow Iran-backed ally, Nasrallah.
There were also shots fired in the air and wails and disbelief in Beirut after Hezbollah head Nasrallah was killed, witnesses said.
Yet, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant defended the decision to kill Nasrallah, calling him the “murderer of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens.”
U.S. President Joe Biden agreed and called Nasrallah’s killing “a measure of justice,” words echoed by Vice President Kamala Harris. “Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands. Across decades, his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world. Today, Hezbollah’s victims have a measure of justice,” said Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
However, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan was among leaders condemning Israel’s recent attacks in Lebanon, saying they were part of what he called an Israeli policy of “genocide, occupation, and invasion.”
Similar statements came from several Arabic leaders, including the Palestinian leadership. They spoke amid reports that an Israeli strike hit an industrial area 500 meters (1,640 feet) from Beirut airport buildings, the closest strike yet to the airport.
SECURITY CRISIS
The deepening security crisis prompted the U.S. Department of State on Saturday to order some employees at its Beirut embassy and their eligible family members to leave Lebanon after Nasrallah’s killing.
The State Department also urged Americans in the country to leave, warning them that the currently limited options to depart might become unavailable if the security situation worsened.
“The U.S. embassy strongly encourages U.S. citizens in Southern Lebanon, near the borders with Syria, and or in refugee settlements to depart those areas immediately,” it said.
France called on Saturday for an immediate end to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and stressed it was opposed to any Israeli ground operation in Lebanon. In remarks following a call with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot urged Hezbollah and Iran to refrain from any action that could destabilize the region further.
The United Nations echoed similar sentiments, but late Saturday, there were no signs that peace was nearing.
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