Iran’s Khameinei holds emergency meeting amid speculation about Nasrallah’s death

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei convened an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Council on Friday night as Israel continued with its strikes in Lebanon. The strikes which have already killed around 6 people, including top Hezbollah commanders, were targeted at the Lebanese group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israeli military has already destroyed several residential buildings in the attack. However, the whereabouts of Nasrallah remains unclear. According to The New York Times, the initial assessment of Israeli intelligence agencies suggested the Hezbollah chief had been killed. However, they cautioned that the assessment might change.

It is pertinent to note that this is the first time Khamenei has convened a meeting of the Supreme National Council, the group that responds to national security threats, domestic and international, and shapes foreign and national policy, since July. The last time the group sat down with the Iranian Supreme leader was shortly after the assassination of Hamas’ then-political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Haniyeh’s killing was also attributed to Israel.

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Iran worries about Nasrallah

In the closed-door meeting, Iranian officials expressed concerns about the absence of a statement from Hezbollah on Narallah’s status. The meeting came as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the country’s foreign ministry issued statements, strongly condemning the attacks. “Iran will follow up on the Zionist’s latest crime and stand by the people of Lebanon and the resistance,” Pezeshkian said in a statement, describing the whole ordeal as a “war crime”.

Some Iranian sources told The New York Times that the cellphones of Iranian officials across the country beeped with text messages and phone calls asking variations of the same question: “Any news from Sayyed?” It was a reference to Nasrallah’s nickname and religious title.

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Meanwhile, Iran has also requested an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a forum of Muslim countries, to discuss the attack.

Iran slams Israel at UN 

While addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the United States of being an accomplice of the Israeli attack. He insisted that both Israel and the US should be held accountable for the attack in Lebanon.

“Netanyahu and his companions have become so viciously emboldened to dream of repeating their carnage in Lebanon and pushing the entire region into a full-scale war,” Araghchi said, referring to Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “It is very clear that they are counting on US support for their sinister campaign of terror and destruction," he added.

Meanwhile, the Iranian state television showed supporters of the government taking to the streets of Tehran, waving Palestinian flags and Hezbollah’s yellow flags while chanting, “Revenge, revenge." Amid the protest, at 1 am (local time), Iran’s state television was putting senior officials and military commanders, including the anti-Western ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, a member of the Supreme National Council, on air to assure Iranian that Hezbollah would survive the attacks.