Tehran Division over response to Israeli strikes

Iran's reformist-led government has said it has no plans to send troops to reinforce Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it is coming under domestic pressure from hardliners seeking to exploit what they regard as a failure to stand up to Israel - and also hoping to block any discussion with the west over future oversight of Iran's nuclear programme.

- Patrick Wintour

Calls for a tougher Iranian response redoubled when it emerged that Brig Gen Abbas Nilforushan, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)'s deputy commander for Lebanon and Syria, had been killed in Beirut alongside the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Such is the tension in Iran that some conservatives have been accused of sowing a poisonous atmosphere on social media by distorting remarks made by the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and his spokesperson to make them appear unsupportive of the "axis of resistance".

The dominant line in government circles remains that a direct war between Israel and Iran should be avoided as it would play into the hands of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and draw in the US - but that Hezbollah should not be left to fight alone. This was the position Pezeshkian rehearsed in New York last week before Nasrallah's killing.