Amid military tension with the United States, Iran has told Hezbollah and its other regional allies to prepare for a wider conflict, raising the prospect of Israel too being drawn directly into the fighting. The Lebanese daily Nida al-Watan reported this on Friday (17 July). When the United States and Israel began war against Iran late last February, the country’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed; the report was based on information from various meetings held on the sidelines of his recent funeral in Tehran.
The report said leaders of the Iran-backed regional alliance, the “Axis of Resistance,” had told allies that the time of waiting was nearly over and that preparing for the military situation was now their top priority. The Friday report came against the backdrop of renewed fighting between the United States and Iran a month after an initial deal to end the conflict. So far Israel has not been involved in the latest fighting, and Tehran has not directly targeted the Jewish state. But if Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah joins the fighting and resumes attacks on Israeli territory, the situation could turn. Hezbollah is said to have been given special instructions to be fully ready for any extreme escalation, and Iranian officials have warned that any future conflict could be far broader and more devastating than any past fighting.
Nida al-Watan also reported that although Iran-backed armed groups have suffered several setbacks in recent months, Tehran still considers Hezbollah its most important regional asset. On 2 March the group joined the wider regional conflict by attacking Israel, and also opposed US-led diplomacy between Jerusalem and Beirut to settle the two countries’ dispute. In response to these attacks, Israel launched heavy air strikes on Hezbollah and took control of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to keep the group away from the border; earlier, in a round of conflict in 2024, Israel had destroyed Hezbollah’s top leadership. Another Iran-backed armed group, Yemen’s Houthis, had also previously attacked Israel.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report