Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Beirut, 4 October, 2024. Photo: IRNA.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Beirut on 4 October, following another night of heavy Israeli bombing in the city, and expressed Tehran’s support for Lebanon and Hezbollah in confronting Israel’s crimes.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports Lebanon’s efforts to confront the crimes of the Zionist entity,” Araqchi said after his arrival.
Iran’s most senior diplomat added that the foreign minister’s presence in Beirut “in these difficult circumstances” was the best evidence that Iran stood by Lebanon and Hezbollah, which is now fighting an all-out war with Israel.
Araqchi also expressed his support for a ceasefire in Lebanon tied to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
🛑| 🇮🇷🇱🇧 Iran’s Foreign Minister casually landing in Beirut this morning pic.twitter.com/XYMbICQUfz
— Arya – آریا (@AryJeay) October 4, 2024
“We support efforts for a ceasefire on the condition that it would be acceptable to the Lebanese people, acceptable to the resistance, and thirdly, it would be synchronized with a ceasefire in Gaza,” he stated.
Araqchi’s delegation included the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, who announced that a package of 10 tons of foodstuff and medicine would also be delivered as part of Iran’s humanitarian assistance to Lebanon.
In the afternoon, Foreign Minister Araqchi met and held talks with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, telling him that “Iran will remain by Lebanon’s side and by the resistance’s side, and we are confident that the Zionist entity’s crimes will fail.”
Araqchi’s visit comes three days after Iran fired as many as 400 ballistic missiles at military bases in Israel in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on 27 September.
According to Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Nasrallah had agreed to a US-proposed temporary ceasefire on the day before his assassination.
While in Beirut, the Iranian foreign minister emphasized the Iranian attack on Israel was a legitimate act of self-defense according to UN principles.
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“We did not start this, and what we did was in response to targeting Iranian territory, our embassy in Damascus, and Iranian interests,” he stated.
“We only targeted military and security centers in the entity. We have no plans to continue unless the Israeli entity decides to target us. If the entity [Israel] takes any action against us, our response will be more appropriate, proportionate, complete, and well thought-out,” Araqchi added.
Since the start of the war between Hezbollah and Israel on 8 October last year, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 1,974, including 127 children, and injured 9,384 more.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 41,802 people, the majority women and children, and injured 96,844 since the war began on 7 October last year.
