Iran condemns Israeli strike killing Hezbollah’s top military commander
Iran denounced Israel’s strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, saying it breached the November 2024 ceasefire, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Iran denounced Israel’s strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, saying it breached the November 2024 ceasefire, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
"There's never been a time like this in the Middle East. You have peace in the Middle East now," Trump told Fox News in an interview published on Friday.
"You have Iran, which has been beaten very badly, and their nuclear capability taken away, and they want to make a deal, and we probably will make a deal with Iran. But you have peace for the first time in the Middle East, you have real peace."
Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon and has rejected US demands that it end domestic enrichment, rein in its missile program and cut off help for its armed Mideast allies.
Washington engaged in talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after giving its Mideast arch-enemy a 60-day ultimatum.
On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
The impasse over the disputed program festers despite Trump's assertion that the US attacks had "obliterated" it.
'Down to size'
Trump welcomed the de facto leader of Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House this week, and has several times said his actions in Iran defanged Tehran. He repeatedly said Washington was in dialogue with Tehran in assertions flatly rejected by Iran.
"One year ago. You had nuclear weapons. You had Iran was boasting about how strong they were, you had this is a totally different Middle East right now," Trump added.
"You have countries that want to make peace, as opposed to countries that had no idea of making peace. We've taken a big, dark cloud off of the Middle East by bringing Iran back down to size."
The two-year regional conflagration sparked by Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 was paused by a ceasefire Trump brokered last month, but the truce appears fragile as Israeli air strikes hit Gaza and southern Lebanon this week.
Israel accuses Hamas and Hezbollah, armed allies of Iran on its southern and northern fronts, of seeking to rearm and posing a threat to its forces. The two groups say Israel is violating internationally brokered ceasefires with the attacks.
"You have Hamas, which is has been, you know, beaten very badly," Trump told Fox News. "You have Hezbollah with Lebanon, which is not good, but that's a, you know, relatively small situation, not a good situation, but small."
The Israeli military said it killed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s top military official in an airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Sunday, marking a major escalation despite a year-old US-brokered truce between the sides.
The strike, the first on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital in months, targeted Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s acting chief of staff and one of its most senior commanders, the military said.
Iran's foreign ministry said the attack said the attack amounted to a “war crime.”
Hezbollah confirmed Tabatabai's death, mourning him as “the great jihadist commander” who had “worked to confront the Israeli enemy until the last moment of his blessed life,” while giving no details on his exact duties.
Mahmoud Qmati, a senior Hezbollah official, said the attack crossed a “red line,” adding that Iran-backed group’s leadership would decide how to respond.
The United States sanctioned Tabatabai in 2016, identifying him as a key Hezbollah figure and offering up to $5 million for information on him.
Israel said he “commanded most of Hezbollah’s units and worked hard to restore them to readiness for war with Israel.”
In a televised statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its forces and expected the Lebanese government “to fulfill its obligation to disarm Hezbollah.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged the international community to intervene to stop Israeli attacks.
Israel has already eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership du
Both sides have traded accusations of ceasefire violations since 2024.
Founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah has grown into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force. It has fought multiple wars with Israel and is a key member of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” alliance.
The group, which fought a nearly twenty-year insurgency which ultimately ejected Israel from occupied South Lebanon in 2000, is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and several Western countries.
