The Iranian proxy’s leader, Naim Qassem, condemned Israel’s strikes against Iran but would go no further

Hezbollah militants (Getty Images)

Iranian proxy Hezbollah announced Friday that it has no plans to retaliate after Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the Lebanon-based terror group’s leader saying Iran can "defend itself and its choices."

"Hezbollah will not initiate its own attack on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s strikes," an unnamed Hezbollah official told Reuters.

Hezbollah secretary general Naim Qassem issued a statement condemning the "criminal Israeli enemy and its tyrannical sponsor, America," but stopped short of pledging any military response of its own.

"We support Islamic Republic of Iran [sic] in its rights and position, in all the steps and measures it takes to defend itself and its choices," said Qassem.

The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a political party founded by Hezbollah-allied former Lebanese president Michel Aoun, also warned against any retaliatory action that would pull Lebanon into the conflict.

"Lebanon should not be a party to this conflict," the FPM said in a statement calling on "everyone to preserve the country's neutrality and not to intervene in this conflict, in the higher interest of the nation and in order to preserve the security of its people and institutions," according to L'Orient–Le Jour.

The likelihood of retaliation by Hezbollah, which operates near Israel’s northern border, has long been seen as one of the largest risks of an Israeli strike on Iran. But over the past year, Israeli military operations have decimated the terror group’s once-formidable military capabilities.

Last September, Israel killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with dozens of the group’s high-ranking officials, and wounded thousands of its operatives by remotely blowing up their pagers in a daring covert operation. Israeli military officials said they also destroyed about 70 percent of Hezbollah’s missile capabilities and drone program around the same time.