BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran not to interfere in his country in an interview broadcast on Friday, also telling the Tehran-backed 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.
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.
