Khamenei said that groups with the backing of Tehran in almost four decades have increasingly managed to repel Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the fact Hamas and Hezbollah are still fighting in Gaza and Lebanon suggests defeat for Israel.
Israel wanted to root out Hamas, but “it massacred the people, it showed its ugly face to the whole world, proved its malice, condemned and isolated itself,” he told a gathering of the top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, on Thursday.
The Iranian leader said Israel thought it would be able to crush the Palestinian resistance by killing its top leaders, but “Hamas keeps fighting, and this means defeat for the Zionist regime.”
On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, was killed in the Iranian capital, Tehran. In September, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut.
Khamenei said that almost 40 years have passed, and Hezbollah has pushed Israel back from Lebanese soil in too many incidents to count-from Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, and then finally from most of southern Lebanon.
He added that it has emerged from “a small group” of fighters to a “massive organization” with the power to turn back an opponent that is comprehensively backed by the “likes of America’s presidents. “
Khamenei said people, including some inside Lebanon, are undermining Hezbollah, thinking it has been weakened after the killing of many of its top political and military leadership.
“They are wrong, they are delusional, Hezbollah is strong and is fighting,” he said. “The organization, with its men, its spiritual power, and its will, is present. The enemy has not been able to overcome it.”
The comments come days after the Iranian leader promised a “tooth-crushing response” to Israel and the United States for the Israeli air raids against multiple Iranian provinces on October 26.
Washington, which has warned against what would become a third major Iranian attack on Israel, has transferred advanced missile defense batteries and soldiers operating them to Israel.
