Leaders of Lebanon, message to Iran: It's our country, stop using it as a means of pressure for your negotiations
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam asked Iran on Friday to stop using his country as a “means of pressure” in negotiations with the United States to end the war in the Middle East, AFP and Agerpres report.
“If I can say one thing to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it (…) as a means of pressure to improve the terms of your negotiations,” the Lebanese prime minister said in a press conference organized to appeal for support for Lebanon.
Tehran demands that any deal with Washington include an end to hostilities on the Lebanese front, where Israel is fighting the pro-Iranian Shiite militia Hezbollah.
Message also to Hezbollah
For his part, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday asked Iran “to stop interfering” in his country and told Hezbollah that diplomacy is the only solution to the conflict with Israel.
“This is not your country, it is ours. You have no right to interfere in our country,” the Lebanese leader said, addressing Iran.
“Hezbollah must understand that there is no other solution but to sit down and talk, there is no other way to save what is left but through negotiation and diplomacy,” he added.
Lebanon estimates that Israeli strikes have left more than 3,500 dead after Hezbollah dragged the country into the Middle East war on March 2, firing missiles at Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
