Iran warns Washington of large scale retaliation over potential Israeli offensive in south Lebanon

Iran has delivered a warning to the United States that it would respond with significant force if Israel launches a major offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon, where Iranian military personnel are believed to be positioned alongside Hezbollah fighters, according to three officials familiar with the message.

The warning, conveyed last month, underscores Iran’s continued direct role in the ground conflict unfolding in southern Lebanon and signals its willingness to retaliate against Israeli operations there as the broader regional war moves into its seventh month.

Lebanese security sources say Hezbollah has constructed an underground command center and weapons storage facility beneath the Ali al Taher ridge, a strategically important area that overlooks southeastern Lebanon and has become one of the most fiercely contested locations in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah has publicly stated that it maintains control of the site and would resist any Israeli attempt to advance on it, though officials have referred only vaguely to a facility there without offering further detail.

Israeli forces have already taken control of large areas south of the ridge and have publicly identified Ali al Taher as one of the military’s key operational priorities going forward.

According to the three regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Tehran’s message warned that any full scale Israeli assault on the ridge would trigger a major retaliatory strike from Iran. Hezbollah declined to say whether Iranian forces were actually present at the site. A White House official disputed the account when asked about the message and about whether Washington had pressured Israel to avoid an attack on Ali al Taher, calling the characterization inaccurate. Iran’s mission in Geneva, the US Defense Department, Oman’s foreign ministry and the Israeli military all declined to comment or did not immediately respond.

Two of the officials said the warning was passed along through Oman, which has served as a mediator in the broader conflict. Those two officials said more than a dozen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including at least two senior officers, were positioned alongside Hezbollah fighters at the site. A third source, a foreign official familiar with the matter, said the message was delivered in mid August and that Israel subsequently delayed plans to storm the ridge as a result of pressure from Washington.

Hezbollah’s media office did not confirm or deny that Iran had sent the warning but said such a message would represent a natural response to developments at the ridge. The office added that Iran views any Israeli ground movement in southern Lebanon, particularly territorial expansion, as a serious violation of the agreement reached between the United States and Iran in June, which included provisions for a ceasefire in Lebanon. Iran had previously fired missiles toward Israel in early June in response to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah positions near Beirut.

Although a ceasefire was announced in June, Israel’s military says Hezbollah continues to operate in the vicinity of the ridge, and Israeli troops have come under attack from explosive drones near the site twice within the past week alone. In July, the Israeli military said it had carried out an air strike targeting a Hezbollah fighter near an entrance to the underground facility and vowed to prevent Hezbollah from operating in the area or threatening Israeli soldiers.

An Israeli military official told a news agency in June that Hezbollah fighters were believed to be trapped underground without access to food or water. A separate report citing a military source said Israeli assessments now indicate no Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel remain at the ridge and that some Hezbollah fighters have died from lack of supplies. A third official said Israeli forces have pursued a strategy of besieging the site, shooting down attempted aerial deliveries of food and water intended for those trapped inside.

Hezbollah’s media office described the siege approach as a deliberate Israeli effort to render the facility uninhabitable without launching a large scale ground assault, adding that the absence of such an attack suggested a warning may indeed have been relayed through intermediary countries.

A Lebanese source close to Hezbollah said the group’s fighters retain the ability to access their positions at the ridge through its northern approach. The military situation at Ali al Taher could not be independently verified, and the area remains part of a security zone that Israel has declared off limits to Lebanese civilians.

Despite Iran’s warning, a Lebanese source and a senior Lebanese security official both said a full scale Israeli operation to seize the ridge remains a possibility in the coming weeks. Hezbollah has said that any major offensive against the site would effectively mark a return to full scale war and could result in missile strikes on communities in northern Israel, a scenario that would risk drawing the broader region deeper into a conflict that has already strained ceasefire efforts on multiple fronts.