Israel-Hezbollah latest: Iran vows to carry on fighting after Hezbollah successor ‘targeted in Beirut blast’

Iran has warned it will not back down from Israel after the Jewish state reportedly targeted the successor of Tehran-backed Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah Hassan in Lebanon.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country, and his regional proxies across the Middle East , would carry on fighting Israel as tensions escalate across the region.

“The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate”, Khamenei said of a massive missile barrage which saw over 100 rockets launched at Israel earlier in the week.

It comes after Beirut was rocked by huge explosions amid reports senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, regarded as the militia’s next leader, was targeted in Israeli strikes.

Civilians were fleeing the series of massive blasts in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday night, with state media reporting there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes.

Iran’s “axis of resistance” comprises a group of violent proxies across Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, coordinated by Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC.

The Quds Force’s aim is to export Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution abroad and is opposed to any US or Israeli influence in the Middle East.