Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf denounced Israel’s “crimes” on Saturday as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strikes on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.

The Thursday night strikes in the densely populated Basta neighborhood and the nearby Nweiri district are said to have targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group’s security chief Wafiq Safa.

While neither Israel’s military nor Hezbollah confirmed Safa was the target or commented on his fate, Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed at least 22 people – the deadliest inside the capital in weeks of escalation.

Speaking to reporters in Basta, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Qalibaf denounced what he called Israel’s “crimes.”

“International organizations and the UN Security Council have the capability [to stop Israel] but they are unfortunately keeping silent,” he said.

Earlier Saturday, Qalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government’s priority was “to work towards a ceasefire,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.

Mikati had on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Qalibaf told reporters after meeting his counterpart Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, that Iran “will certainly support the decisions of the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, and the resistance [Hezbollah] in this period.”

When Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Lebanon last week, he said Tehran backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Qalibaf was expected to head to Geneva later Saturday to participate in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Israel launched a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon earlier this month to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure near the border after a year of near-daily cross-border drone and rocket attacks by the terrorist organization which forced some 60,000 people to evacuate from their homes in the north.

The attacks on northern Israel over the last year have resulted in the deaths of 28 civilians. In addition, 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have also been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.