BEIRUT — Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji lashed out at Iran on Wednesday over its perceived meddling in the country’s internal affairs, after a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader described Hezbollah as “more essential than bread and water” for the country.

What happened: Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser on international affairs, said earlier this week that the “ongoing attacks and crimes committed by the Zionist entity (Israel) against Lebanon show that the presence of Hezbollah has become more important for Lebanon than daily bread.”

Velayati’s comments to the semiofficial Mehr news agency came a day after Israel killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Ali Tabatabai, in a strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, collectively known as Dahiyeh, last Sunday — the first assassination of a top Hezbollah operative since the US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire began.

The Iranian official also warned against the disarmament of Hezbollah. “Israel has shown that without the resistance, Lebanon would be defenseless in the face of aggression.”