Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today called on Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who yesterday asked Tehran to stop “interfering” in his country’s affairs, to “save” Lebanon from its “real enemy,” Israel.
“Based on Aoun’s statements, one could believe that it is Iran that occupies a fifth of Lebanon, has displaced a quarter of the Lebanese and bombs his country daily,” Araghchi wrote in X, referring to Israel without naming it.
“If Lebanon were a bargaining chip for Iran, we would have reached an agreement long ago. Save Lebanon from your real enemy, Mr. President,” he added.
In an interview with CNN television network yesterday (Friday), Aoun accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its talks with the US to end the war, in one of his harshest criticisms to date of Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
“The Lebanese people are paying the price (…) for the sake” of Iran’s interests, Aoun denounced. “It is not your country, it is ours (…) You should not interfere in our country,” he said, addressing Iran.
“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their talks with the US,” the Lebanese president added. “It is unacceptable.”
Iran has made it a precondition of any peace deal with the US that the conflict in Lebanon also ends. Meanwhile on Thursday the Revolutionary Guards – Iran’s elite army corps – demanded the Israeli army withdraw from Lebanon.
On the same day, Hezbollah rejected a new ceasefire plan agreed to by the Lebanese and Israeli governments with US mediation, as a ceasefire announced on April 17 was never respected. A key condition of that agreement is that the Shiite group cease fire and withdraw its fighters from southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief Naeem Qassem said in a written statement on Thursday that the agreement was rejected by “a large part of the Lebanese people.”
In response to Kassem, Aoun commented yesterday: “Hezbollah must understand that there is no solution other than to sit down and talk, there is no other means (…) to save what remains beyond negotiations and diplomacy.”
“This is about the Lebanese people not the people of Naim Qassem,” Aoun added, stressing that “the majority of the Lebanese people are fed up” with the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel “can flatten the whole country, but it will never achieve its goal,” he assessed. “It tried in Gaza. Hamas still has demands, no?”
“We have a great opportunity to end the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel,” the Lebanese president assessed, adding, however, that the Hezbollah issue can only be resolved within the country.
And addressing Israel, Aoun said: “you must demonstrate a certain will (…) to end this war. (…) We are ready, we have the will and the commitment, do you?”
Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 after it launched strikes against Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
