BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun told a visiting Iranian delegation on Sunday that the war-scarred country was “tired” of external conflicts playing out on its territory.
The high-level delegation was in Beirut for the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Tehran-backed Hezbollah which fought a war with Israel last year that ended in a November truce.
“Lebanon has grown tired of the wars of others on its land,” Aoun told the Iranian officials, according to a statement shared by the newly appointed president, a former army chief seen as close to the West.
One person killed in Israeli strike in south Lebanon
“Countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries,” he added.
Long the dominant force in Lebanon, Hezbollah suffered staggering losses in the war with Israel, compounded by a massive blow with the December fall of ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria – long a lifeline for the militant group for weapons from Iran.
Hezbollah’s weakening allowed Lebanon’s divided parliament to elect Aoun, seen as Washington’s preferred candidate, after more than two years of presidential vacuum, followed by the approval of a new prime minister and government.
Aoun said Lebanon wanted “the best relations with Tehran, for the benefit of both countries and peoples”.
During their meeting, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf extended an invitation from President Masoud Pezeshkian for Aoun to visit Iran, the Lebanese statement said.
Ghalibaf was accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi.
The delegation landed in Beirut although regular flights between the two countries had been suspended.
The ban, which prompted protests from Hezbollah supporters, came after the United States warned that Israel might target Lebanon’s only international airport in Beirut to thwart alleged weapons shipments from Iran, a Lebanese security source had told AFP.
In a televised address to tens of thousands attending Nasrallah’s funeral in a Beirut stadium, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said he refused for “tyrant America to control” Lebanon.
The United States helped broker the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, which ended more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war that killed longtime leader Nasrallah in September.
The fighting, launched by Hezbollah in support of Palestinian ally Hamas in the early days of the Gaza war, killed thousands in Lebanon and left large swathes of the country’s south in ruins.
Israel has on several occasions accused Hezbollah of using the airport in Beirut to bring in weapons from Iran. The group as well as Lebanese leaders have denied the allegations.
In a meeting with Ghalibaf, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that “the security of the airport and passengers is the priority”, stressing that ensuring it was the responsibility of the Lebanese state, according to a statement from his office.
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