Iran’s leader: Israel will be eradicated, not Hezbollah and ‘axis of resistance’

Iran’s supreme leader says Israel is wrong to believe that it can eradicate Hezbollah in Lebanon and that an “axis of resistance” of Tehran’s proxies in the region is finished.

State TV quotes Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying during a recent meeting on the occasion of Women’s Day that “the Zionist regime, in its delusion, believes it is preparing itself through Syria to encircle and eradicate Hezbollah forces, but the one that will be eradicated is Israel.”

Khamenei also adds that Israel and the United States “thought the issue of resistance was over. They are gravely mistaken.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei meanwhile says Iran will use every opportunity to mobilize the regional and international community to stop what he calls Israeli aggression against neighboring countries like Syria, Yemen and others.

He also says that the Syrian people are the only ones who can decide on their country’s future after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad, a Tehran ally. “Naturally, the regional countries should assist in this process without any destructive interference or any form of pressure and threats against the political actors in Syria.”

Baghaei urges regional countries to put pressure on the UN Security Council to stop Israel’s presence in a border buffer zone with Syria and says: “Ultimately, the entire occupied Golan Heights of Syria must be liberated.”

Israel says its presence in the buffer zone is temporary and defensive, with the goal of preventing hostile elements from taking advantage of the current vacuum of power in Syria to threaten Israel.