Pezeshkian calls Israel’s attack on Beirut ‘state terrorism’

“The Zionist regime’s attacks of today against the Dahiyeh area in Beirut were egregious and unobscurable war crimes that once again revealed the nature of the regime’s state terrorism,” Pezeshkian said in a statement on Friday.

“The crimes committed by the Zionist regime against the people of Palestine and Lebanon are a sign of the international community’s inability to stop the machinery of state terrorism, proving this regime is the greatest threat to regional and international peace and security,” he added.

The Iranian president called for a unified global response, particularly from Muslim nations, to “condemn this crime”.

“The Islamic Republic’s administration will pursue the Zionists’ recent crime, and will stand by Lebanon’s people and the Axis of Resistance,” he noted.

Israel carries out multiple air strikes targeting residential apartment buildings in southern Beirut in attack described as “unprecedented”, and children are reported among those killed as rescuers dig through rubble.

Israel’s military launches waves of attacks on Beirut after dismissing global calls for a ceasefire with Hezbollah, intensifying a bombing campaign that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon since Monday.