News - Middle East: The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has congratulated Lebanon and its Hezbollah resistance movement for successfully imposing a ceasefire on Israel, hailing it as a “strategic and humiliating defeat” for the occupying regime.

Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks in a message sent to Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem on Thursday, a day after a truce deal took effect between Israel and Hezbollah following more than 14 months of fighting.

"The ceasefire on the Lebanese front is a strategic and humiliating defeat for the Zionist regime, which did not even come close to achieving any of its evil goals and ambitions in the war against Hezbollah," he said.

 The truce, he added, "could even mark the beginning of a ceasefire to end the war on Gaza."

Salami also noted that Israel's acceptance of the ceasefire, as it was under the barrage of Hezbollah missiles targeting the regime's bases and strategic sites, had lessons for Tel Aviv and its supporters.

The usurping entity is on the decline and the crimes that it is committing in Gaza and Lebanon will strengthen the resistance, he emphasized.

The IRGC chief commander further said Hezbollah had clinched the victory by truly dissuading Israel from achieving its evil objectives in the northern front of the occupied territories and imposing a ceasefire on the fake regime.

"Undoubtedly, this great victory, which was secured thanks to the pure blood of martyrs, the patience and resilience of the Lebanese people, and the unwavering courage and sacrifices of the youth and Hezbollah, is considered a major development in the history of the Islamic Ummah's struggle against Zionists in West Asia."

In early October 2023, Israel launched its bloody acts of terror and aggression across Lebanon after the occupying regime unleashed a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

At least 3,823 people were killed and 15,859 others injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

In support of the oppressed Palestinians and Lebanese, Hezbollah conducted retaliatory attacks on targets in the occupied lands that led to the displacement of almost 70,000 Israeli settlers.

Earlier this week, the two sides agreed to a 60-day cessation of fighting brokered by the US and France.

Press TV