Iran’s top diplomat warned on Saturday that a full-blown attack on Lebanon would “spell the end” of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu during a Beirut trip, as cross-border tensions surge over the Gaza war.

Israeli forces and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily fire following the outbreak of war on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.

“Any move by the Zionist regime (Israel) for a large-scale attack on Lebanon will spell the end of Netanyahu,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in Beirut.

Amir-Abdollahian, whose country backs a number of armed groups in the region including Hezbollah and Palestinian factions including Hamas, was on his third visit to Beirut in over four months of hostilities.

“Our assessment is that the Zionist regime will never be able to fight on two fronts,” he added. “Netanyahu is struggling to get out of the Gaza quagmire.”

BBC