BEIRUT: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed Sunday to confront the United States and Israel over their strikes on the group’s key backer Iran.
“We will undertake our duty of confronting the aggression,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a statement, adding that his movement would not leave “the field of honour and resistance”.
The Lebanese group has so far not taken action since the US and Israel began striking Iran on Saturday.
It is organising a gathering on Sunday afternoon in its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburb in a show of support for its ally Iran, amid fears from Lebanese authorities that it might intervene in the conflict.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, following an emergency meeting of the country’s Higher Defence Council, said on Sunday that “the decision of war and peace rests solely with the Lebanese state”.
Hezbollah also called on mosques to recite the Koran and organise mourning ceremonies to mark the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, both in the Beirut suburb and other areas of Lebanon where the group wields influence.
Khamenei was killed on Saturday as the United States and Israel jointly launched a barrage of ongoing strikes on the Islamic republic.
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