The Iranian government has welcomed the ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and the Hezbollah militia.
Iran will continue to support “the government, the people and the resistance in Lebanon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghai said in Tehran.
Now is the time to exert pressure to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza too, Baghai added.
Hezbollah was formed in 1982 with Iranian support in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Over the following decades, it developed into a powerful political and military organization that penetrated the Lebanese state and its institutions.
Through a network of welfare services, influence over security forces and control of smuggling routes, it gradually weakened the state and created its own parallel structures.
However, the militia has been left severely weakened after two months of war with Israel in southern Lebanon, and lost several of its top commanders – including its leader Hassan Nasrallah – in targeted strikes in Beirut.
