Top adviser to Khamenei says Iran will back Hezbollah with all means if war breaks out

A top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader says the Islamic Republic and its proxies would support Hezbollah with “all means” if Israel launches a war in Lebanon, the Financial Times reports.

While stressing that Iran is not interested in a war, Kamal Kharrazi, Ali Khamenei’s foreign affairs adviser, warns that “there would be a chance of expansion of the war to the whole region, in which all countries including Iran would become engaged. In that situation, we would have no choice but to support Hezbollah by all means.”

He notes that such a war serves neither the interests of Iran nor of the US.

A second Iranian official tells the UK paper that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel directly, instead leaning on armed proxy groups.

On Friday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said that if Israel embarks on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon against Hezbollah, “an obliterating war will ensue.”