US condemns Iranian FM Zarif for honoring Hezbollah chief

Former Lebanese Hezbollah leader is accused of perpetrating attacks that killed hundreds of people.

By MICHAEL WILNER, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Iranian FM Javad Zarif 370 (photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Iranian FM Javad Zarif 370
(photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
WASHINGTON – The United States on Tuesday condemned a decision by Iran’s foreign minister to place a wreath at the grave of a former Lebanese Hezbollah leader accused of perpetrating attacks that killed hundreds of people.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was photographed on Monday laying a wreath at the grave of assassinated Hezbollah military commander Imad Moughniyeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Mugniyah has been implicated in terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of people, including the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, which killed over 350 people in 1983, and the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.
“The decision to commemorate an individual who has participated in such vicious acts, and whose organization continues to actively support terrorism worldwide, sends the wrong message and will only exacerbate tensions in the region,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
“The inhumane violence that Mugniyah perpetrated – and that Lebanese Hezbollah continues to perpetrate in the region with Iran’s financial and material support – has had profoundly destabilizing and deadly effects for Lebanon and the region,” she said.