Leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) assassinated in the Israeli airstrike in Syria last week was a true supporter of Gaza and its ongoing battle against the Israeli regime.
Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised address on Monday to mark seven days since Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was assassinated along 12 other people in an Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Syrian capital Damascus.
Nasrallah said General Zahedi had supported Gaza since the very start of the Al-Aqsa Storm, an unprecedented military operation by resistance groups in Gaza against Israel which triggered the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7.
“Martyr Zahedi’s heart was beating for Gaza and his eyes, mind and thoughts were dedicated to Gaza from the first day of the Al-Aqsa Storm until the time of his martyrdom,” he said.
Who was Brigadier General Zahedi, martyred in Israel's terror attack in Damascus? pic.twitter.com/8DSVTIy7Pn
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The Hezbollah leader said that Israel’s attack on Iranian consulate in Damascus affected the equations in the Gaza war and caused US President Joe Biden to move to restrain the Israeli regime and its hawkish prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said that Iran’s presence in Syria, which has been used as a pretext by Israel to launch attacks on the Arab country in recent years, is just to provide military advice to the Syrian government, adding that IRGC commanders and officers have been present in Syria and Lebanon since the very early years of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in the 1980s.
Nasrallah said the IRGC has insisted on maintaining its military advisors in the region to support the resistance in Lebanon and in Palestine and to strengthen the Syrian army in its battle against terrorist organizations.