Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent a message of condolence on Friday to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah after the death of the terror group’s commander in Syria.

Mustafa Badreddine, an explosives expert who was killed in an explosion near the Damascus airport, was one of the terrorists responsible for the 1983 attack on the United States Marines barracks, which killed 305 people.

Zarif praised Badreddine in his message, expressing his hope that the “martyrdom of this great commander Mustafa will further strengthen resistance forces against the Zionist and terrorism,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Two years ago, in the middle of nuclear negotiations with the United States and other global powers, Zarif laid a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, one of Badreddine’s co-conspirators in the barracks bombing. The White House condemned Zarif’s actions, saying that it sent the “wrong message” for him to honor a man whose “heinous acts of terrorism that killed hundreds of innocent people, including Americans.”

During a meeting with Nasrallah last August, Zarif boasted that the nuclear deal presented “a historic opportunity” to confront Israel. A Washington Post editorial last week observed that Zarif supported government-sponsored denial of the Holocaust.

[Photo: Bundesministerium für Europa, Integration und Äußeres / Flickr ]