Lebanon president tells Iran 'not your job to interfere' in country

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran not to interfere in his country in an interview broadcast on Friday, also telling the Hezbollah that diplomacy was the only solution to the conflict with Israel.

“It’s not your country, it’s our country… It’s not your job to interfere into our country,” Aoun said in the interview with CNN, addressing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It’s unacceptable,” he said.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing days earlier of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes. Israel responded with massive strikes and a ground invasion.

On Wednesday, Lebanese and Israeli envoys in Washington agreed to a truce which according to a statement is conditional on a “complete cessation” of Hezbollah fire, without mentioning a halt to Israeli attacks.

Also read: Iran declares support for Hezbollah with wider peace deal in doubt

Tehran insists the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are linked, and on Thursday the head of the Guards’ foreign arm said Israel must pull back from its front lines in Lebanon.

“Hezbollah must understand that (there is) no other way but to sit and talk, no other way to solve this problem and to save what’s left except through negotiation and diplomacy,” Aoun added.

“It’s the Lebanese people, they are not Naim Qassem(’s) people,” he said, referring to the Hezbollah chief, who on Thursday rejected the truce deal.

“The majority of the Lebanese people are fed up with war,” the president added.

Neither side has respected an April 17 ceasefire.

Israel “can flatten the whole country, but they will never be able to achieve their objective,” he said, adding: “They’ve tried it in Gaza. Hamas still exists.”

Hezbollah is Lebanon’s only group that refused to surrender its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing it was fighting Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon.

Aoun said that “we have a great opportunity to end the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel”, but that Hezbollah could only be dealt with domestically.

“It’s the job of the state… but, on one condition – that we remove the root causes of the existence of its weapons,” meaning Israel’s withdrawal and ending the state of hostility, he said.

Addressing Israeli authorities, he said: “You need to show some willingness and commitment to end this war… We are willing, we are committed. Are you?”