Iran’s Pezeshkian defends backing Hezbollah, says ‘must not allow Lebanon become another Gaza’

In the midst of continued Israel-Hezbollah fighting, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Lebanon must not be allowed to become another Gaza.

The comment refers to the widespread death and devastation in the Gaza Strip from the war between Israel and Hamas.

As the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed and Lebanon-based terrorist group, has led to fears of a wider all-out war in the Middle East, Pezeshkian told CNN in an interview: “We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel.”

In the interview translated into English from Persian, Pezeshkian said that Hezbollah “cannot stand alone against Israel”.

Pezeshkian’s implied call for support for Hezbollah comes a day after Israel conducted around 1,600 airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Israel targeted weapon-storage sites, launch-sites, and drone sites of Hezbollah. It also urged Lebanese civilians to vacate Hezbollah strongholds as Hezbollah, like fellow Iran-backed anti-Israel terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), embeds its personnel and weaponry among civilians.

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Pezeshkian told CNN, “Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States.”

Pezeshkian, who is in the United States for the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, accused Israel of seeking a wider conflict in the region.

“We know better than anyone that if a larger war erupts in the Middle East, it will benefit no one globally. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict,” said Pezeshkian.

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Even as Iran-sponsored Hamas triggered the ongoing war in Gaza with the October 7 attack, Pezeshkian said Iran had “never started a war in the last 100 years” and was “not looking to cause insecurity”. At the same time, Pezeshkian said Iran “will never allow a country to force us into something and threaten our security and territorial integrity”.

Separately, Iran called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to “take immediate action” against the “insane” Israeli escalation, according to AFP.

“Iran will not remain indifferent. We stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.