Iran’s leadership said deeply shaken, divided over response to Nasrallah’s killing
Conservatives want direct retaliation, while moderates — including president — prefer to avoid all-out war, as Supreme Leader Khamenei defers to proxies, officials tell NY Times
Iran’s leadership is divided and bewildered over Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, four Iranian officials told The New York Times, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei apparently undecided about what to do next.
While conservative Iranians want a strong response, including a direct attack on Israel, moderates are urging restraint, the Saturday report said.
All of the four officials, two of whom are members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, spoke on condition of anonymity.
They said news of Nasrallah’s death was received with shock and anxiety in Tehran, with some senior officials privately or in emergency meetings speculating that Israel may also strike Iran, with Khamenei as the target.
Amid heightened security, Khamenei was moved Saturday to a secure location from where he vowed revenge for Nasrallah’s death.
Khamenei was “deeply shaken” by the death of his close friend Nasrallah, the four Iranian officials said, though was maintaining composure. When he heard the reports, he called an emergency gathering of the country’s Supreme National Security Council at his home. During the meeting, differences of opinion on what to do emerged, the report said.
Hawkish members, among them Saeed Jalili, urged quickly building Iran’s deterrence by hitting Israel before the latter did the same to Iran, officials with knowledge of the meeting told the Times.
State television, which is controlled by those with ties to Jalili, has also urged hitting Israel, the report said.
But Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian opposed such a move, believing that launching a preemptive strike against Israel would mean falling into a trap set by the Jewish state to start a regional war, officials said.
Other moderates also worried that an attack on Israel would draw responses damaging critical Iranian infrastructure, an acute problem amid the already weak home economy.
In his public remarks, Khamenei praised Nasrallah and vowed to support Hezbollah, but did not threaten to attack Israel. He also indicated that Hezbollah would lead the response to the assassination with only support from Iran.
“All of the forces in the resistance stand by Hezbollah,” he said. “It will be Hezbollah, at the helm of the resistance forces, that will determine the fate of the region.”
“Lebanon will make the aggressor and the evil enemy regretful,” Khamenei also vowed.
The Times cited some analysts as saying the response showed the Iranian supreme leader’s indecision over how to respond and his apparent preference to avoid an all-out war.
Other senior Iranian officials likewise stated that Iran’s proxy militias in the region would hit back at Israel, rather than the Islamic Republic carrying out a direct assault.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Sunday that what Iran terms “resistance groups” will continue to confront Israel with Iran’s help, according to Iranian state media.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president of Iran, told the Times in a phone interview that Nasrallah’s assassination was “an incredibly heavy blow, and realistically speaking, we have no clear path for recovering from this loss.”
“We will not go to war, that’s off the table,” he asserted. “But Iran will also not reverse course in supporting the militant groups in the region, nor in defusing tensions with the West. All of these things can be pursued at the same time.”
Two IRGC officials, including a strategist who has been at meetings discussing the response to Nasrallah’s killing, said Iran’s first concern was to help Hezbollah recover from the series of devastating blows Israel has dealt to its leadership and infrastructure. That means appointing a new leader, putting in place a new command structure, and installing a new communications network. After that Hezbollah would be able to plan its retaliation against Israel.
Iran will send a senior member of its elite Quds Forces to Beirut via Syria to advise Hezbollah, the two Guards members said.
At the United Nations General Assembly last week, Pezeshkian told reporters that Iran was ready to “lay down its arms if Israel laid down its arms,” and called for an international force to intervene in establishing peace in the Middle East,” the report said.
Conservatives attacked him for the speech, saying his message showed weakness that encouraged Israel to kill Nasrallah, the Times said. They are now urging that Iran send fighting units to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah in case the fighting becomes a full-blown war.
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday morning confirmed that it had killed Nasrallah along with other senior Hezbollah commanders in a strike on the leader’s Beirut bunker.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has spiked in recent weeks after 11 months of simmering border conflict.
Since October 8, 2023 — one day after Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 — Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border in solidarity with the Palestinian terror group, which is also sponsored by Iran.
