Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's death has sparked reactions across Iran's government-controlled press, with conservative, hardline, and reformist newspapers offering their differing perspectives.
In recent days, ultra-hardliner social media activists, largely supporters of former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, have been criticizing President Masoud Pezeshkian and his government for their "inaction" against Israel, despite its recent deadly operations in Gaza and Lebanon. They have suggested that Iran is avoiding confrontation with Israel.
Ultra-hardliners have, however, remained conspicuously silent on the fact that the decision to launch a military response against Israel ultimately rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not with the president or parliament.
In a series of X posts Saturday after Nasrallah’s demise was confirmed, Khamenei called on all Muslim nations to stand by the people of Lebanon but fell short of vowing revenge by Iran for his killing and the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July as hardliners and ultra-hardliners had expected.
“Only breaking red lines [by us] can stop [the enemy from] breaking [our] red lines,” a Jalili supporter tweeted while suggesting that the Islamic Republic should end its so-called “strategic patience” and build a nuclear bomb, threaten to leave the UN and refuse to allow the passage of Western commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz for a week by holding a week-long naval drills.
“Why can Yemen block the main passageway of oil [in the Bab al-Mandab Strait] but we are not doing the same in the Strait of Hormuz?” an ultra-hardliner asked in a tweet Saturday.
Another ultra-hardliner suggested that Iran must target the economic interests of the Western, Israeli, and Arab countries in the region before taking any other action.
“Iran's first step should be closing this strategic passageway to prevent an all-out war in the region,” he tweeted while suggesting that failing to take such a step may bolden Israel to make the “strategic mistake” of attacking Iran.
Iranian officials have on many occasion in the past threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, but this can lead to a clash with the US and other naval forces, leading to a regional war.
“Whether we like it or not, Iran must direct its military doctrine towards building a nuclear bomb. Iran has wasted the cards it held in the past and the only card that it holds now is a nuclear bomb. This is the only means to bring the West to the negotiation table,” Sohrab Salehi, a university professor of medicine who also supports ultra-hardliners on social media tweeted Saturday.
“You gentlemen in charge, one must have nuclear power against such an enemy. Test the first nuclear bomb for the sake of Iran's security and in reaction to the actions of the notorious regime [of Israel],” Mohammad-Mehdi Dehghannejad, an ultra-hardliner social media activist tweeted.
These demands have drawn criticism from other netizens, who argue that closing the Strait of Hormuz would only escalate tensions. They also point out that building a nuclear bomb, despite the official claim that Khamenei has issued a religious ban on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms, would not shield the Islamic Republic from Israel.
“In the highly unlikely case that we succeed [in building a bomb], how can a system that can’t protect its highest officials manage to guard that bomb? Or let’s say you built it...how are you going to make a deal using the nuclear bomb card?” a netizen on X asked the advocates of Iran becoming nuclear to protect itself against Israel.
A netizen on X contended that ultra-hardliners will brag about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz for some time but their ruckus will soon be forgotten as in the past.
Meanwhile, Abdolreza Davari, a former ultra-hardliner and close confidante of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who supported Pezeshkian over Saeed Jalili in the presidential election, offered a surprising assessment of the situation and Hamas's role in it following Nasrallah’s death.
Highlighting the upcoming anniversary of the October 7 attack that ignited the latest round of conflict, Davari argued in a tweet that an analysis of the “cost-benefit of the operation and its impact on the Resistance Front and the Zionist enemy” reveals that the operation resulted in “nothing but pure damage.”
In another tweet, Davari suggested that Iran should reassess the factors behind the “devastating blow” to the Resistance Front and prioritize “pursuing Iran's interests” in line with the shifting dynamics of the region in the post-Nasrallah era.
“His eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, has joined his fellow great martyrs whom he had led for 30 years from one victory to another,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Nasrallah’s death occurs amidst an escalation in the nearly year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that intensified in September after Israel indicated it could no longer tolerate insecurity in its border region with Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets, missiles, and drones into northern Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza and Hamas, which is an allied Iran-backed militant group. In response, Israel has intensified its airstrikes and conducted targeted killings of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a broader military operation.
The past ten days marked the deadliest period in Lebanon since the grueling month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Initially, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded across various locations in Lebanon, resulting in scores of fatalities and nearly 3,000 injuries. Lebanon attributed the explosions to Israel, although Israel did not confirm or deny involvement. Nasrallah vowed to retaliate but he was killed before he could implement any counterattack plan.
Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960, in Lebanon. His father was a fruit vendor, and he was the eldest child in a family of 11. His birth and childhood were marked by the conflicts between Israel and Lebanon. In 1974, Musa Sadr and Mustafa Chamran, two Iranian supporters of Khomeini in Lebanon, initiated the Amal movement, and Nasrallah joined the movement in 1975 at the age of 15.
At 16, he went to Iraq. In 1979, coinciding with the Iranian Revolution, Nasrallah completed his preliminary religious studies in Najaf. This period coincided with pressure from Saddam's government on Shia clerics. Nasrallah returned from Najaf to Baalbek, Lebanon.
After the 1979 revolution in Iran, Nasrallah met with Khomeini in 1981. Khomeini granted him permission to engage in religious and civil affairs. At this time, Nasrallah was only 21 years old.
In 1982, amid the Iran-Iraq War, Hezbollah was formed with the planning and support of the Islamic Republic. Tehran's propaganda apparatus presented this group as one influenced by the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Lebanon from the outset.
Nasrallah joined Hezbollah at its inception. In 1989, around the time Ali Khamenei was selected as Supreme Leader, he traveled to Iran to study at the Qom seminary.
From the establishment of Hezbollah until 1991, Sobhi Toufaily was the secretary-general of Hezbollah. In 1991, the executive council of Hezbollah removed him from his position and replaced him with Abbas al-Musawi, Nasrallah's former teacher.
Musawi was the secretary-general of Hezbollah for less than a year. In February 1992, he was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack. The 31-year-old Hassan Nasrallah succeeded him in Lebanon.
Immediately after his appointment, Nasrallah traveled to Tehran and met with Ali Akbar Velayati, the then-foreign minister of the Islamic Republic. During this meeting, Velayati emphasized that the relationship between the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah was “fraternal” and would continue.
At the beginning of his work as secretary-general, Nasrallah managed to position Hezbollah as a political entity. After Hezbollah's participation in elections, he traveled to Tehran to meet Khamenei and presented a report on his political activities in Lebanon. Khamenei praised his political success and called for greater support for Hezbollah.
Nasrallah's trips to Tehran continued. After the relatively moderate Mohammad Khatami's won Iran's presidential election in the 1997, the relationship between the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah remained strong. In October 1997, a few months after Khatami's presidency began, Nasrallah was among his first foreign guests. In a meeting on October 13, 1997, Khatami expressed condolences for the death of Hadi Nasrallah, Nasrallah's eldest son, emphasizing the Islamic Republic's comprehensive support for Hezbollah and calling it a “symbol of resistance.”
On July 7, 2000, Nasrallah returned to Tehran again. During this visit, he also had a side event; at the invitation of Mustafa Moeen, the Minister of Science in the “reformist” government, he visited Tarbiat Modarres University.
Moeen presented honorary membership in the university's faculty to Nasrallah, saying, "It is the pride of our higher education system that we awarded our first honorary doctorate to Nelson Mandela and today we bestow honorary membership upon Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah."
Nasrallah's relationship with the Islamic Republic during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency remained strong and close, as it had been in the past. The year 2005 was a pivotal one for Nasrallah. Following the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Hezbollah came under suspicion because Hariri had made efforts to limit the political and military power of Hezbollah.
Nevertheless, Hezbollah managed to succeed again in the parliamentary elections. After this victory, in June 2005, he traveled to Iran.
During his visit to Tehran, Nasrallah met with Khamenei. This was Nasrallah's last official trip to Tehran. Once, in 2021, reports emerged about his secret visit to Tehran, but this trip was never confirmed.
After Nasrallah stopped appearing in public, he began to express Hezbollah's views through video speeches.
Reaction to the Green Movement
In 2010, a year after the Green Movement protests in Iran—where one of the slogans was "Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon, my life is for Iran"—videos of Nasrallah surfaced. In one of them, he emphasized the religious ideology of the Islamic Republic, stating, "In Iran today, there is no such thing as Persianization or Persian civilization. What exists in Iran is Islamic civilization. What exists in Iran is the religion of Muhammad."
Nasrallah continued by praising the leaders of the Islamic Republic, stating, "The founder of the Islamic Republic was an Arab father and the son of the Prophet of God, Muhammad, may God bless him and his family. Today, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, is the son of the Prophet of God."
In the second video, Nasrallah addressed the protests following the 2009 elections, stating, "Some dreamt of the end of the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, but these dreams are mere illusions. The Iran that many have exaggerated recent events about—I emphasize—remains strong. Its system, government, people, and elites are blessed with wise, courageous, compassionate, and capable leadership, under the historic guidance of Ali Khamenei."
Funding from Iran
In a speech in July 2016, during the peak of President Hassan Rouhani's government's efforts to re-establish relations with the West, Nasrallah pointed to financial support from the Islamic Republic, stating, "The budget, expenses, and weapons of Hezbollah come from the Islamic Republic."
He continued, "As long as Iran has money, it means we have money." These remarks by Nasrallah created difficulties for the Rouhani government at that time, both domestically and in terms of its image around the world.
On Mahsa Amini
About two weeks after the killing of Mahsa Amini for mandatory hijab, Nasrallah reacted to the protests in a speech on September 30, 2022. He said, "Due to the ambiguous death of Mahsa Amini, Western countries have made a fuss, while Tehran has emphasized that it will conclude the investigations without any bias."
Nasrallah pointed to the explosion of a Shiite educational center in Afghanistan, saying, "More than 50 innocents were martyred, yet no one made the slightest noise, but regarding Mahsa Amini's death, this incident has been widely exploited."
The conservative newspaper Jomhouri Eslami condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likening him to historical figures such as Genghis Khan and Hitler. The paper also criticized the United Nations for allowing a "war criminal" to address the General Assembly, accusing it of giving Netanyahu a platform to "distort history" and make "false claims" in his defense.
Jomhouri Eslami called for Netanyahu’s prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC), noting that governments worldwide, along with the ICC, recognize him as a “war criminal.” The editorial urged for “decisive” international action, and stated that governments should jointly “seek justice to prevent further atrocities.”
On September 27, the Israel Defense Forces announced air strikes on Hezbollah's main headquarters in Beirut, in an operation aimed at assassinating Hassan Nasrallah. The following day, Hezbollah confirmed his death.
Vatan-e Emrooz, a hardline daily, focused on what it saw as the consequences of inaction following the earlier assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In a commentary titled "Escape from War, an Inevitable War," columnist Hamid Malekzadeh argued that Israel’s actions were a result of two factors: confidence in Western support, particularly from the US, and a lack of political will in Tehran to respond effectively to hostile actions against Iran and its allies.
Malekzadeh criticized Iran’s restraint after Haniyeh’s death, describing it as a “misinterpretation of diplomacy” that led to inaction. He contended that Iran should have issued a “firm ultimatum” to Israel, rather than engaging in what he called an “ineffective policy of restraint.” The columnist concluded that Israel’s killing of Nasrallah reflected the failure of this approach and underscored the necessity of internal unity and preparedness for conflict in international relations.
The IRGC-affiliated Javan newspaper reported on Hezbollah’s official response to Nasrallah’s death, stating that the group confirmed his martyrdom 18 hours after the attack in Beirut’s Dahiyeh. It said Hezbollah’s statement emphasized that the leadership remains committed to continuing its "jihad" against Israel and supporting Gaza and Palestine as .
Kamyar Behrang, journalist told Iran International that "There is a significant difference between Khamenei's message regarding the death of Hassan Nasrallah and his previous messages. In January 2020, after the killing of Qasem Soleimani, Ali Khamenei explicitly referred to hard revenge in his message. But today, like a religious leader, he only issued a call for jihad."
In contrast to hardline stances, the moderate reformist daily Ham-Mihan cautioned against the dangers of media-driven hype and “raising unrealistic expectations.” The newspaper stressed that pushing for “military confrontation” or creating the perception that war is the only option would not benefit the country or its leaders.
It called for calm, measured policy-making in foreign affairs, warning that either “unfulfilled demands” would lead to “public disappointment” or the country would be forced into a “weak negotiating position,” with “predictable negative outcomes.” Ham-Mihan also pointed out that Israel, aside from its attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April, has attempted to distance itself from direct actions against Iran. The paper warned of the risks of escalating regional tensions, as Israel’s “ultimate goal is to involve global powers in the conflict, changing the dynamics in its favor.”
