Portraits of the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (left) and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right), displayed on September 23, 2025, in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L’Orient Today)
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, paid tribute in a speech Tuesday evening to the memory of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in massive Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs nearly a year ago, on Sept. 27, 2024.
In a televised address, Khamenei referred to the anniversary of this elimination by Israel, carried out during a broadened offensive in Lebanon and against Hezbollah, after 11 months of war of attrition with the party.
He described Nasrallah as a "great treasure for the Islamic world, Shiism and Lebanon ... The wealth created by Hassan Nasrallah, including within Hezbollah, remains and continues, and it must not be neglected, neither in Lebanon nor beyond," according to the text reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) news.
On Sept. 27, 2024, around 6 p.m., several Israeli planes struck a block of six buildings in Haret Hreik, beneath which was a Hezbollah command center hosting a meeting with a dozen people, including the late party chief. The death of the emblematic secretary general of the party, who had led the movement for about 30 years, was confirmed the following day.
Khamenei's speech, in which he emphasized the country's "unity," especially after last June's 12-day war, comes as the government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, which was severely weakened by the fall 2024 war. Tehran has repeatedly expressed its refusal to dismantle its Lebanese ally's arsenal, in statements that have been denounced in Beirut as interference in the country’s internal affairs.
In his remarks, Khamenei also paid tribute to the generals, scientists and other Iranians killed during the 12-day war.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Joe Rajji responded to remarks made by Iran’s Supreme Leader. On his X page, he reiterated that “the only legitimate authority in Lebanon remains the government and its decisions, which are irrevocable, foremost among them the decision to establish the state’s monopoly on weapons and to extend the state’s sovereignty over its entire territory.”
He also emphasized that “the Lebanese Army is and will always remain the only legitimate institution and the main defender of Lebanon, its people, and its sovereignty.”
