Mufti Jaafarite Ahmad Kabalan. (Credit: National News Agency)
The Jaafari Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, politically close to the Shiite tandem Amal-Hezbollah, called on Sunday in a statement for a “strong partnership with Iran,” just hours after the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites from Saturday night to Sunday, which he downplayed.
“The United States, despite all its weight and arsenal, only carried out a demonstrative strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, with no strategic result, simply to buy a semblance of prestige and prevent a massive Iranian response,” said the sheikh, in comments reported by the National News Agency. A senior Israeli official told Axios journalist Barak Ravid on Sunday that “it is too early to know exactly what the results of the U.S. strike in Iran are,” adding however that it is “certain ... that the Iranian nuclear program has been delayed by several years.”
'We do not want to be outside of history'
A week after calling on Arab and Muslim countries to “massively stand in solidarity with Iran” following the Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic, while emphasizing at that time that Lebanon is “by necessity, primarily concerned with its own protection,” Kabalan this time directly addressed the Lebanese: “Where does Lebanon stand in the face of this legend called Iran, which saved it from the clutches of the worst Zionist occupation since 1982? The moment is historical and we do not want to be outside of History. But there is no free history without a strong partnership with Tehran,” he argued.
Hezbollah, sponsored by Iran and a sworn enemy of Israel, has not attacked Israel in response to daily Israeli strikes on Iran since the night of June 12 to 13. The party, after pressure from Lebanese authorities, said it would not unilaterally launch an offensive against Israeli territory, but its leader, Naim Qassem, stated last week that it was ready to react “in whatever way the party deems appropriate” and reaffirmed its solidarity with Tehran.
The party had independently opened a front in support of Hamas in October 2023, following Israel's bloody response to the Palestinian Islamist movement's attack in Israel on Oct. 7. The ensuing 13-month war, with two months of violent escalation from late September to late November 2024, caused considerable damage to Lebanon, killed over 4,000 people, and severely weakened Hezbollah.
Kabalan also praised the “Iranian missiles, which reminded us that the homeland is sovereignty, honor and a force that protects, far from the subjugation of the region’s regimes that Trump treats like slaves,” establishing a dichotomy between two blocks in the region, one “allied with the United States, plagued by symptoms of a lethal senility, and an ally of Tehran, writing the history of this region with its heavy sovereign missiles, unaided by any other force on this planet.”
Earlier, Hezbollah deputy Hussein Jechi also launched a diatribe against the United States, considering their strikes on nuclear facilities as an “aggression against the entire Islamic world and all those who remain free by refusing American hegemony.”
The Jaafari Mufti also predicted a “political reconfiguration of the region, after this war ... clearly favorable to Tehran.” “Any future negotiation will inevitably see the Americans striving to obtain some meager guarantees for Tel Aviv, which now lives under the rubble of heavy Iranian missiles,” he added.
On Saturday, the vice-president of the Supreme Shiite Council (CSC) in Beirut, Vice-President Sheikh Ali al-Khatib, also predicted an “Iranian victory” during a religious gathering on the airport road, reported the NNA. “Iran is the true supporter of Arabs and Muslims against Western aggression,” he affirmed, adding that “we [the Lebanese] are united with Iran in this war,” as the Islamic Republic “has never deserted [Lebanon] against Israel since its revolution” in 1979.