Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister on Friday accused Iran of interfering in national affairs, in an unusual move after the speaker of Iran’s parliament said he was ready to help negotiate terms for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. A diplomatic spat began.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the reported remarks amounted to “blatant interference in Lebanon’s affairs” and later summoned Tehran’s envoy to respond to the comments. This is a highly unusual rebuke from a Lebanese official, considering the stranglehold imposed by Iran-backed Hezbollah. About the country.
In an interview published the day before in France’s Le Figaro newspaper, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf said that the Iranian government is ready to negotiate with France on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 (UN Security Council Resolution 1701). He was reported to have said. The last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 is seen as a precondition for a Lebanese ceasefire.
In response, Mikati said, referring to the UN agreement, “the issue of negotiations towards the implementation of international resolution 1701 is being carried out by the Lebanese state.” “Everyone is asked to support it in this direction and not try to impose new obligations.”
The 2006 agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and allowed only the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeeping forces to operate in southern Lebanon. This has been widely considered ineffective, but is gaining renewed attention in the current conflict.
Since last year’s Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel has engaged in cross-border gunfire with the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah. The conflict has escalated sharply in recent weeks, with Israel invading southern Lebanon with the aim of destroying the group’s border infrastructure.
Mr. Ghalibaf’s chief of staff, Mahdi Mohammadi, later denied the remarks, but it was too late to defuse diplomatic tensions, and the Iranian government’s envoy in Beirut was summoned for an explanation. During the meeting, Lebanese officials stressed the need to maintain Lebanon’s sovereignty while pursuing a diplomatic solution to the conflict, according to a statement from the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Mikati has repeatedly affirmed his government’s commitment to full implementation of the United Nations agreement to end the violence in Lebanon, which has left thousands of people dead and more than a million displaced. But Lebanon’s crisis-ridden interim government is seen as largely powerless to rein in Hezbollah.
