The Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on February 24 that the “epic funeral held in Beirut for assassinated Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine demonstrates that Hezbollah is vibrant.”
This is the narrative that Iran’s state media and systems have been pushing since the burial of the Hezbollah leader. Nasrallah ran Hezbollah for three decades, building it into a formidable force. An important part of that force was destroyed by Israel in the conflict last year.
Iran didn’t want to sacrifice its Hezbollah proxy. Some experts believe that Hezbollah became an insurance policy for Iran against strikes on its nuclear program. But Hezbollah grew too large, “too big to fail,” in a sense. It was such a gold-plated terrorist proxy that Iran feared losing it in a full-blown war. That led to Hezbollah being stuck in a tit-for-tat war with Israel after the Hamas attack.
In essence, Hamas wagged the Hezbollah dog and Hezbollah got stuck firing a few rockets a day at Israel.Until Israel turned the tables on the group in mid-September 2024.
In November, Hezbollah basically accepted a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and the terror group is now finding it difficult to change the equation.
Iran is putting on a brave face, asserting that all is well in Beirut. It saw the turnout at the “epic funeral” as an example of how “vibrant” Hezbollah continues to be. However, the Israeli Air Force flying over the funeral illustrates that Hezbollah can no longer be the “resistance” it has claimed to be.
Nasrallah's funeral
The IRGC’s statement was issued on Monday, a day after hundreds of thousands of mourners in Beirut bid farewell to Nasrallah, the long-serving leader of Hezbollah, and his successor, Safieddine. The IRGC claimed that “The participation of millions of people from various nations and ethnicities in the funeral procession is a testament to Hezbollah’s strength and the global support for the resistance,” according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri, the chairman of the chiefs of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces called Nasrallah’s funeral a historical epic in the region and in Lebanon, during the National Conference on Mobilizing People and National Resources in Sacred Defense held at Malek Ashtar University on Monday, IRNA reported.
“Yesterday, the funeral and burial ceremony of the martyrs of the Resistance Axis became an ever-lasting epic in the history of the West Asian region and Lebanon,” Baqeri said.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s newly instated secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, in hiding and speaking from an undisclosed location, vowed to continue resistance against Israel, even if all his movement’s members were killed. “We will abide by the covenant we have made and will continue the path of the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, even if we are all killed,” he stated.
He didn’t want to be killed, though, as he relayed his message from a hiding spot.
IRNA noted that the new Hezbollah chief paid tribute to Nasrallah as a “historic, exceptional, national, Arab, and Islamic leader...,” saying, “He was loved by the Mujahideen, the people, the oppressed, and especially the Palestinian people.”