Araqchi made the comment in an exclusive note for IRNA on Sunday, the same day when a historic funeral is held for Nasrallah, five months after he lost his life in an Israeli airstrike on a southern neighborhood of Beirut.

The Iranian foreign minister, who is in Beirut to attend the funeral, said in his note that Nasrallah was a strategic thinker who transformed Hezbollah from a mere military group into a political and ideological entity.

“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah cannot be simply described as a military commander or politician. He was a strategic thinker who managed to present a modern model of the resistance that has been transformed from a military tactic into an ideological, political and social framework. Nasrallah’s legacy goes beyond the battlefield, and lies in his deep views on the future of the Resistance Front and regional independence,” said Araqchi.

He said that Nasrallah elevated the resistance ideology to a strategic equation across the West Asia region at a time when many Arab and Islamic leaders succumbed to external pressures.

“He believed that the legitimacy of any movement stems not from weapons or foreign support, but from public backing. Consequently, he transformed Hezbollah from a guerilla force into a significant player in the political, social, and cultural spheres of Lebanon and the Islamic world. This was his unique ability to evolve a military movement into a civilizational and moral discourse on both regional and international stages,” the top Iranian diplomat further said in his note.

He also praised the late Hezbollah leader for his support for the Palestinian cause, noting that he believed Palestine represented not just a territorial dispute, but a humanitarian, logical, and historical matter tied to the honor of the Islamic world.  

Emphasizing that the path of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will continue, Araqchi said that it is a miscalculation on part of adversaries of the resistance, who may think that Nasrallah’s path has ended with his passing.

“Men like Nasrallah live on through their ideologies. This path, nurtured by the blood of fighters, will endure thanks to the resolve of freedom-seeking nations. The future belongs to those nations who prioritize dignity over humiliation, resilience over surrender, and hope over despair,” said the Iranian politician.