Iran gives Hezbollah free hand in ceasefire talks

The situation at a glance

Iran gives Hezbollah free hand in ceasefire talks

The US is trying to end fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. Tehran pledges full support to the Shiite militia – whatever it decides to do.

As Israeli forces continue their attacks in Lebanon, Iran has pledged full support to the government in Beirut and the Hezbollah militia in all their decisions. In doing so, Hezbollah’s main supporter could signal that he would accept a ceasefire between the Lebanese Shiite organization and the Israeli forces. Iran agrees and supports every decision of the “Lebanese resistance” (meaning Hezbollah) and the Lebanese government, said senior Iranian advisor Ali Larijani after a meeting with the Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, according to the state news agency NNA.

The US is currently trying to achieve a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. According to the report, when asked whether he wanted to undermine the US initiative with his visit, Larijani replied: He did not want to undermine anything, but to solve the problem. According to the New York Times, tech billionaire Elon Musk, a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump, is said to have met with Iranian UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani in New York. It was discussed “how tensions between Iran and the United States could be reduced,” it said, citing Iranian officials.

In retaliatory strikes in October in response to Iranian attacks on targets in Israel, Israeli forces allegedly destroyed a secret nuclear research center in Iran. The airstrike targeted the Taleghan 2 facility in Parchin, southeast of Tehran, where explosive devices for nuclear weapons were developed before the end of Iran’s military nuclear program in 2003, the US news site “Axios” reported, citing Israeli and US officials. Recently, the previously shut down facility is said to have resumed operations.

“There was scientific activity that could lay the foundation for creating a nuclear weapon. That was a top secret thing. A small part of the Iranian government knew about it, but most of the Iranian government didn’t,” Axios quoted a US official as saying. The leadership of the Islamic Republic denies that it wants to build nuclear weapons.

According to the report, Israel may have chosen the facility as a target because US President Joe Biden had explicitly asked not to attack nuclear facilities in Iran, but Taleghan 2 is not part of the official Iranian nuclear program – which is why Tehran has not commented publicly on the attack can.

In addition, according to Axios, the attack may have been an indication from the Israeli armed forces to the Iranians about how well they know about the nuclear program. “The airstrike sent a not-so-subtle message that the Israelis have deep insight into the Iranian system, even on things that are top secret and known only to a very small group of people in the Iranian government,” he said “Axios” a US official.

The attacks on blue helmet soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) continue to provide explosive material. An artillery shell hit a Unifil base but did not explode. It initially remained unclear who fired the grenade. Ultimately, the 155-millimeter projectile was detonated in a controlled manner by Italian explosives experts, the peace mission said in a statement. No one was injured: the blue helmets were in shelters because of the ongoing fighting between the Hezbollah militia and the Israeli armed forces.

The Syrian capital Damascus was hit again by an Israeli airstrike, according to the state news agency Sana. According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the target was a Syrian military barracks in the Mazzeh district of western Damascus.

The Israeli army has been increasingly attacking targets of Hezbollah and other militias loyal to Iran in Syria since the war in the Middle East began more than a year ago. The Observatory has counted around 150 such attacks since the beginning of the year. The Israeli military itself often does not confirm the attacks.