Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah would be avenged and his path in fighting Israel would be continued by other militants.
"(Nasrallah) was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought and the path will be continued," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a statement read on state television in which he announced five days of mourning in Iran.
"The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged," he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei, in an earlier statement issued after the Israeli army said it had killed Nasrallah, said: "The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront," state media reported.
After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, had died "next to Nasrallah" in the Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Friday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed Nasrallah's killing partly on the United States, which has long supplied Israel with advanced weapons.
"The Americans cannot deny their complicity with the Zionists," Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by state media.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani vowed in a post on X that Nasrallah's "path will be continued and his holy goal will be realised in the liberation of Jerusalem".
Meanwhile, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told Reuters that Ayatollah Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place.
The sources said Iran was in constant contact with Lebanon's Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next step after the killing of Nasrallah.
