Tehran:

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has extended Tehran’s unwavering support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters, commending them for their steadfast stance against Israel. The 56-year-old Iranian cleric declared that there remains “no path forward except jihad and resistance” as he linked the end of Iran’s conflict with the United States to a complete halt in Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

In a message on X addressed to Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem and the group’s ‘fighters’, Khamenei declared that Tehran sees the defence of Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters as a “strategic mandate” and called for a complete, unconditional end to Israeli aggression against Lebanon as a condition for any deal to end Iran’s war with the US.

The Iranian leader came in response to a Hezbollah letter pledging allegiance to Iran’s Islamic Republic. He alleged there “remains no path forward except jihad and resistance” against the United States and Israel. 

“Today, as the nations of the world have grown weary of the tyranny and oppression of the US government and the criminal Zionists, who are the destroyers of lives and generations, there remains no path forward except jihad and resistance,” he wrote. 

Khamenei further claimed the Lebanese rebel group has stood as an “unyielding rock as a forerunner of groups engaged in jihad against the aggression” of Israel, and this “steadfastness has become an inspiring message for the world’s free nations’ quest for liberation from global arrogance.”

In line with policy set by his father, the former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said the defence of Hezbollah is Iran’s “strategic mandate.”

Khamenei also paid tribute to Hezbollah fighters, including former Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed in US-Israeli attacks, and observed that their sacrifices had elevated the group “from a sapling into a mighty tree,” bringing honour to Lebanon across the Islamic world.

He concluded with prayers for Hezbollah’s forces, veterans, displaced civilians, and martyrs’ families, voicing confidence in their ultimate success.