Austrian MFA summons Iranian ambassador over pro-Hezbollah message

The Austrian Foreign Ministry summoned Iranian Ambassador to Vienna Abbas Bagherpour after he published a message online in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

“We strongly condemn the use of the image of the Hezbollah flag in the Iranian ambassador's message,” the foreign ministry said and reminded that the use of the movement's symbols is banned in Austria, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

On August 25, Bagherpour published a message in which he wrote “Hezbollah will win” under the Lebanese group's flag, commenting on the rocket attack on northern Israel.

Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said on August 26 that the military estimated that Hezbollah fired about 230 rockets and more than 20 drones into northern Israel on Sunday, but that most of them failed to reach their targets.

On August 25, Hezbollah said that Israeli accounts of the success of countermeasures taken in advance against the attack on Israel were untrue, while the movement's leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel had failed to shoot down a single rocket fired.

Hezbollah had earlier issued a statement announcing the launching of a response to the killing in Beirut of one of the movement's commanders, Fuad Shukr, in an IDF strike.