Hezbollah: US strike payback has just started
BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Sunday that Iran’s missile attacks on two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces was only the start of the retaliation for America’s killing of a top Iranian general in a drone strike.
Hassan Nasrallah described Iran’s ballistic missile response as a “slap” to Washington, one that sent a message. The limited strikes caused no casualties and appeared to be mainly a show of force.
The leader of Hezbollah, which is closely aligned with Iran, said the strikes were the “first step down a long path“that will ensure U.S. troops withdraw from the region.
“The Americans must remove their bases, soldiers and officers and ships from our region. The alternative to leaving vertically is leaving horizontally,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
Nasrallah praised Iran Gen. Qassem Soleimani for his steadfast support for
Hezbollah. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has provided training for Hezbollah, which fought in the war in Syria alongside Iran-backed militias that Soleimani directed.
Nasrallah said that the world is a different place after Soleimani’s death, and not a safer place as some U.S. officials have declared.
Iran had for days been promising to respond forcefully to Soleimani’s killing. But after the ballistic missile strikes, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif tweeted that the country had “concluded proportionate measures in selfdefense.”
Nasrallah also praised Iran’s leadership for admitting to accidentally shooting down a Ukranian passenger plane on the night it launched the missile attacks. He called the acknowledgment “transparency that is unparalleled in the world.”
The plane crash early Wednesday killed all 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Iranian Canadians.