Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran not to interfere in his country in an interview broadcast on Friday and told Tehran-backed Hezbollah that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the conflict with Israel.
“This is not your country, this is our country… It is not your job to interfere in our country,” Aoun told Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in an interview with CNN.
“They are using Lebanon as leverage in negotiations with the United States. This is unacceptable,” he said.
On March 2, Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, dragging Lebanon into the Middle East war and avenging Iran’s supreme leader who was killed in a US-Israeli attack a few days ago. Israel responded with massive strikes and ground invasions.
On Wednesday, Lebanese and Israeli envoys in Washington agreed to a ceasefire that was conditional on a “complete cessation” of Hezbollah fire, according to a statement, which made no mention of a cessation of Israeli attacks.
Tehran insists the fighting in Lebanon and the Gulf War are related, and on Thursday the head of Iran’s Guards foreign forces said Israel must withdraw its troops from the Lebanese front lines.
Aoun added: “Hezbollah must understand that there is no other way to solve this problem than to sit down and talk, except through negotiation and diplomacy to save what is left.”
“This is the Lebanese people, they are not Naeem Qasim,” he said, referring to Hezbollah leaders who rejected a ceasefire deal on Thursday.
“The majority of the Lebanese people are tired of war,” the president added.
Neither side has respected the April 17 ceasefire agreement.
Israel “can level the entire country, but they will never achieve their goals,” he said, adding: “They’ve already tried it in Gaza. Hamas is still there.”
Hezbollah is the only militant group in Lebanon that has refused to hand over its weapons arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, saying it is fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
“We have a good chance of ending the hostilities between Lebanon and Israel,” Aoun said, but Hezbollah could only deal with it domestically.
“This is the job of the state… but there is a condition that we eliminate the root causes of the presence of its weapons,” which would mean an Israeli withdrawal and an end to hostilities, he said.
He told Israeli authorities: “You need to show some willingness and commitment to end this war… We are willing, we are committed. What about you?”
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
