"Hezbollah was preparing for a new war, recognizing its inevitability," Russian analyst Yury Lyamin tells Sputnik.

The group understood it "would be targeted regardless and thus intended to defend itself."

"Iran has so much firepower. Add Hezbollah's firepower, and that's going to take a very heavy toll on Israeli defenses," Beirut analyst Ali Rizk tells Sputnik.

"Now Hezbollah is going back to its original self—guerrilla tactics, more secrecy, fewer targets for Israel," Rizk explains.

"Iran began a project for its defense," the pundit notes. "It developed indigenous technology. It focused on building drones and missiles and creating underground bases to protect its drones and missiles."

"I think all of these together have created an environment in which resistance in Iran becomes far more effective. And that is why this Epstein coalition has failed," Marandi highlights.

"That was always in our planning—the chance that the US Navy, or perhaps an international coalition, would be escorting tankers through," he told CNBC.

"Armenian authorities are attempting to erase any mentions of Russia ahead of the elections by refusing humanitarian aid that is being offered without any underlying political message," Zakharova charged.

"They are only causing harm to their own citizens."

"The attempted attack on the Russkaya compressor station in southern Russia once again underscores this point," Oralli says. "Reports of 12 attempted strikes on energy facilities by Ukraine in just the past two weeks show that the conflict is increasingly shifting into the realm of energy security."

"These facilities are critically important for the operational continuity of the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines, which supply gas across the Black Sea to Europe and Turkiye," Oralli says.

🗣 "Russian energy is indispensable to easing the world's largest energy crisis. EU bureaucrats will soon be forced to recognize this reality, acknowledge their strategic blunders, and atone," Russian special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev wrote on X, reacting to the move.

💬 “Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Chasseurs Alpins Battalion in Varces died for France during an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq,” Emmanuel Macron posted on X.

💬 “So-called overcapacity is a false proposition,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said, adding that China opposes using it as an excuse for political manipulation.

💬 “Anytime anyone puts American service members in harm’s way in any manner whatsoever, I believe we should respond robustly,” top commander of US forces in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, as reported by The Hill.