TEHRAN – Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s Leader and the country's former foreign minister, stated to Hezbollah’s representative in Tehran that Iranians will continue to lend their full support to the group in the face of Israeli aggression on Lebanon and an American push for the Lebanese government to disarm the Resistance movement.

Hezbollah was formed in 1982, when Israel launched an invasion into Lebanon. The invasion reached the capital, Beirut, and resulted in the occupation of large swathes of the country’s southern territories. The group has continued to act as a bulwark against Israel and is widely considered Lebanon’s most important defense front against foreign aggression.

During a Sunday meeting with Abdullah Safieddine, Velayati affirmed that Iran would continue to back Hezbollah. “The Islamic Republic, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei, will maintain its backing for Hezbollah’s activities on the front line of Resistance,” the top advisor stated.

Safieddine conveyed Hezbollah's readiness to defend Lebanon’s territorial integrity and its people, adding that the group would not lay down its arms.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect in November 2024, following months of strikes on occupied territories that left Israeli settlements in the north bleak. Israeli attacks on residential areas in Lebanon killed thousands of Lebanese, including civilians and a number of Hezbollah's top leaders and commanders.

So far, Hezbollah has respected the ceasefire, but Israel has been violating the truce almost daily. The United States, the main guarantor of the ceasefire, has not urged Israel to cease its attacks or withdraw from five new regions it has since occupied in southern Lebanon. Washington, however, has been pressuring the Lebanese government to compel Hezbollah to disarm. This move would effectively leave Lebanon defenseless against Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly endorsed "Greater Israel," the ultimate Zionist vision of a Jewish state encompassing several Arab territories, including Lebanon.

During the Sunday meeting, Safieddine warned that Hezbollah would ultimately be compelled to deliver a “crushing response” to continued Israeli ceasefire violations if they persist. The group has, thus far, refrained from retaliating, appearing to await government authorities' assurance of the ceasefire's enforcement.

Velayati’s latest remarks follow previous comments that angered Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. Rajji took offense at Velayati's assertion that disarming Hezbollah would leave Lebanon extremely vulnerable. The foreign minister has yet to comment on Israel’s relentless killings of Lebanese civilians or U.S. calls to disarm Hezbollah, a group that has also become an integrated part of Lebanon’s political establishment over the years.

Iran maintains it has no desire to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs and would respect any decision made collectively by the Lebanese people.