BEIRUT (TIP): Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on October 18 offered a rare rebuke of Iran, charging it with “blatant interference” over remarks attributed to its parliament speaker on a UN resolution on Hezbollah and Lebanon. The Security Council resolution, adopted in 2006 and which states that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in southern Lebanon, has come into focus during the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
In remarks published by France‘s Le Figaro newspaper on Thursday, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reportedly said Tehran was ready to negotiate on the implementation of the resolution, which is seen as a precondition for a ceasefire in the current war.
Mikati hit back, accusing Iran of “blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish an unacceptable guardianship over Lebanon”.
“The issue of negotiating to implement international resolution 1701 is being undertaken by the Lebanese state,” Mikati said in a statement released by his office. “Everyone is required to support it in this direction, not to seek to impose new mandates”. Mikati said that Lebanon’s foreign minister will summon Iran’s charge d’affaires to seek clarification on Ghalibaf’s remarks. Such public criticism is rare for the Lebanese government, over which Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway. Iran’s foreign minister and parliament speaker have both visited Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war late last month.
Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a south Beirut air strike On September 27, dealing the group a seismic blow. (AFP)