Iran has denied any intentions of directly interfering in Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon. Instead, it has indicated a reliance on its paramilitary allies located in the territories of Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq for any response. Addressing the issue ahead of the Israeli military’s ground invasion across the border, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated on Monday that Iran wouldn’t send its fighters to either Lebanon or Gaza to challenge Israel. He pointed out that both Lebanon and Palestine are capable of dealing with Israel’s aggression and no requests for support have been received from them.
Kanaani emphasised that Israel would not go unpunished for its actions against Iranian citizens, military personnel, and resistance forces. However, any strikes on Iran carried out by Israel have not been retaliated against yet – despite targeted attacks on Iranian nuclear research facilities, assassinations of Iranian officials and scientists in Syria, and killings of Hamas Political Head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hizbullah commanders in Lebanon.
In the light of the death of the Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, reportedly caused by Israel, both Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian and supreme leader Ali Khamenei expressed condemnation without suggesting any direct intervention by Iran.
Despite accusations from Israel and its allies blaming Tehran for introducing instability within the region, Iran has maintained a measured and tactical stance against direct engagement. In April, after the bombing of an Iranian consulate in Damascus by Israel, Iran alerted Western countries of its plan to release hundreds of missiles and drones towards Israel. Consequently, Israel and its allies managed to neutralise 90 percent of them before they breached Israeli airspace.
With the conflict intensifying since the Hamas-led strike on October 7th, attempts to pressurise Israel have seen little success – even with the combined efforts of Hizbullah, Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthis and Iraqi Shia militias. Israel broadened the conflict scope by debilitating Hizbullah and targeting Yemen’s port and power infrastructure, while the Iraqi government strove to keep their Shia militias in check.
Vocal Iranian radicals and militant thinkers have long reproached Tehran’s abstention from actively participating in regional clashes. However, their ability to overrule Khamenei, the highest power in the nation, is non-existent. Since Pezeshkian took up the presidency in July, detractors have zeroed in on his diplomatic foreign policy strategy. At the UN General Assembly, his speech, encouraging dialogue with the Western countries to resuscitate the 2015 pact to restrict Iran’s nuclear agenda in return for the removal of the economically devastating sanctions, drew criticism.
Hassan Akhtari, a previous Iranian ambassador to Syria and a staunch iconic figure, conveyed to the Middle East Eye, a UK-based outlet, that there were attempts by Israel and the US to sever Iran from its partners by propagating the notion that Iran was not supportive of them.