Israel escalates pressure on Iran with Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah’s killing

While Khamenei’s reaction shows Tehran is in no rush to hit back, experts say it could build nuclear weapons to restore deterrence against Israel

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Shiite Muslims light candles in Pakistan’s Karachi during a protest against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Photo: AP

Bloomberg

Published: 9:46am, 29 Sep 2024Updated: 10:45am, 29 Sep 2024

Israel had been looking for a chance to kill the leader of Hezbollah.

Its intelligence had long tracked Hassan Nasrallah and it recently learned he planned to move, which would have closed the window of opportunity, according to a senior official who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order on Friday from his hotel room in New York, just before giving a fiery speech to the United Nations General Assembly that rejected a US-backed push for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Washington, Israel’s closest ally, got only a last-minute heads up as its latest bid to stop the violence failed. Friday’s strike in southern Beirut was another in a series of dramatic Israeli attacks – from exploding pagers to sweeping air raids – that have left Iran’s main proxy severely debilitated and now leaderless.

After a week of appeals from world leaders at the UN to avoid the risk of all-out war in the Middle East, Israel seems to be doing just the opposite, its warplanes demolishing what Iran and Hezbollah had long set as red lines.

Still, judging by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s first reaction, Iran is in no rush to escalate. President Masoud Pezeshkian also stopped short of pledging a direct and immediate attack on Israel – and in his international debut at the UN he struck a relatively restrained note.