Lebanese Prime Minister <a href="https://time.news/fear-and-uncertainty-in-the-middle-east-in-the-face-of-the-iran-israel-conflict/" title="Fear and uncertainty in the Middle East in the face of the Iran-Israel conflict”>Najib Mikati criticized Iran’s “glaring interference” in Lebanon’s affairs, reported AFP
Beirut summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires after Lebanon’s prime minister denounced as flagrant interference the words of an Iranian representative who said he was ready to negotiate a cease-fire in Lebanon.
For the first time, the Lebanese prime minister, who maintains good relations with the influential pro-Iranian Lebanese movement “Hezbollah“, also represented in his government, takes a similar position towards Iran, notes France Presse.
After a year of exchanging cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah, on September 30 the Israeli army launched an offensive in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, in an article in France’s Figaro, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Kalibaf, who was in Beirut last week, said Tehran was ready to negotiate with Paris for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
“To achieve this goal of the ceasefire, the speaker of the parliament tells us that Iran is ready to negotiate specifically on measures to implement resolution 1701 with France, which will act as an intermediary country between Hezbollah and Israel,” it said. in the French daily’s article.
Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, decreed that the Blue Helmets and the Lebanese army should only be present in southern Lebanon, which borders Israel, recalls France Presse.
“We are surprised by this proposal, which constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a trusteeship over Lebanon, which we reject,” Mikati said in a statement. It said he had ordered the foreign ministry to call the Iranian chargé d’affaires to ask him for an explanation.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had received the Iranian representative Meisam Kahramani to emphasize to him that Lebanon is leading the necessary diplomatic efforts to end Israeli aggression, implementing resolution 1701. The ministry added that it had pointed out to the Iranian representative, that the sovereignty and security of the Lebanese territory must be protected.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtama Amani, was wounded in mid-September in a pager blast, as were hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in an operation attributed to Israel.
The Iranian parliamentary speaker met with Mikati in Beirut on October 12. He criticized the crimes of Israel, which is carrying out intensive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Mikati said he had informed Kalibaf, as well as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had previously visited Lebanon, that the situation in Lebanon, which had been subjected to unprecedented aggression by Israel, needed to be understood. He has stressed that his government is working with all of Lebanon’s friends, including France, to pressure Israel into supporting a ceasefire.
At least 1,418 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of massive Israeli strikes against Hezbollah on September 23, according to AFP statistics based on official sources, BTA writes.