Analysis: Iran reluctant so far to retaliate against Israel after airstrike kills Hezbollah leader
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran lost its most reliable ally in the Middle East when an Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. But Iran isn’t leading the charge to retaliate.
That’s put Tehran in a bind: Not responding could see it alienate the militias it relies on in the region. Meanwhile, any possible retaliation risks a wider war as its theocracy faces intense challenges at home.
“By the grace and power of God, Lebanon will make the transgressing, malicious enemy regret its actions,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in the wake of Nasrallah’s death Friday. But the 85-year-old paramount ruler in Iran gave no mention of his country taking action over the death of a man he once praised as “an exceptional face in the world of Islam” after the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
That reluctance continued into Monday, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told journalists that “the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian people are not after war” but rather “peace and stability in the region.”
https://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-mideast-tensions-hezbollah-lebanon-analysis-5020aeed3c88790d5483fdf40c9ba392