Hezbollah official: We will not intervene in event of ‘limited’ US strikes on Iran

A Hezbollah official said Wednesday that the Lebanese terror group will not intervene militarily in the event of “limited” US strikes on its backer Iran, but will consider any attack against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a “red line.”

While US President Donald Trump has for weeks threatened major military action against Iran, The New York Times reported Sunday that he is considering launching a limited strike to pressure Tehran to agree to his nuclear demands. If the Islamic Republic continues to hold out, that strike could be followed by a far larger campaign later this year targeting regime change, the report said.

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, has said that his group is in a “defensive position,” but it would consider itself “targeted” by any US attack on Iran.

However, the group’s official told AFP on condition of anonymity: “In the event of limited US strikes on Iran, Hezbollah’s position will be to not intervene militarily.”

If the group determines, however, that the United States is trying to “provoke the downfall of the Iranian regime or to target the supreme leader, Hezbollah will then intervene,” they added.

The official predicted that in a hypothetical scenario where the US attempted to militarily unseat the Iranian government, US-ally Israel would “inevitably wage a war against Lebanon.”

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has stepped up airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with assessments indicating that the Iran-backed terror group may join Tehran in a new conflict against Israel.

On Tuesday, two senior Lebanese officials said that Israel recently sent an indirect message to Lebanon that it would strike the country hard, targeting civilian infrastructure, including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any US-Iran war.

“There are signs that the Israelis could strike very hard in the event of an escalation, potentially including strategic infrastructure such as the airport,” Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said Tuesday in Geneva.

Raggi said Lebanese authorities had appealed to Hezbollah not to respond in any way that could trigger “bad situations” for Lebanese civilians, stressing: “This war does not concern us.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose government has sought the disarmament of Iran-backed Hezbollah since taking office a year ago, urged the terror group not to drag the country into a new conflict, speaking in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday: “The Gaza adventure imposed a high cost on Lebanon. We hope that we will not be dragged into another adventure.”

During the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023 and 2024, the Israeli military said it only targeted sites belonging to the Iran-backed terror group. No Israeli strikes targeted key Lebanese infrastructure.

The Israel-Hezbollah war started when the terror group began firing missiles across the border on October 8, 2023 — a day after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

The November 2024 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel followed an Israeli ground invasion and concurrent air assault that severely degraded the group and killed much of its leadership.

Israel has consistently targeted what it says are Hezbollah attempts to rebuild its force following the November 2024 ceasefire that ended a year of conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

Under the agreement, Hezbollah was required to withdraw and disarm south of the Litani River, but Israel alleges that the terror group remains entrenched in the area, leading the IDF to conduct near-daily strikes.

Lebanon’s government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.