Lebanon summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires on Friday October 18 after the Prime Minister saw a ” blatant interference » from Tehran in the words of an Iranian official claiming to be ready to negotiate a ceasefire in Lebanon.
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This is the first time that Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who maintains good relations with the powerful pro-Iranian Hezbollah represented within his cabinet, has adopted such a position. After a year of border fire exchanges, Israel and the Hezbollah are now at open war Lebanon where the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the south on September 30.
The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who visited Beirut last week, said in an article published Thursday evening by Le Figaro that Tehran would be ready to negotiate a ceasefire in Lebanon with Paris. “ To achieve this ceasefire objective, the President of Parliament tells us that theIran would be ready to concretely negotiate the measures to implement resolution 1701 with France, which would act as a mediator country between Hezbollah and Israel », Says the article in the famous French daily.
Resolution 1701, which marked the end of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only peacekeepers and the Lebanese army must be deployed in southern Lebanon bordering Israel. “We are surprised by this position, which constitutes blatant interference in Lebanese affairs, and an attempt to establish a guardianship that we reject over Lebanon », Said Najib Mikati in a press release.
Summons of the Iranian charge d’affaires
He indicated that he had asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to “ summon the Iranian charge d’affaires » to ask him “ explanations “. In the evening, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had received the charge d’affaires Meysam Ghahrmani for “ insist that Lebanon leads the necessary diplomatic efforts to stop Israeli aggression by implementing resolution 1701 “.
Hasni Abidi is a political scientist, director of the Center for Studies and Research on the Arab and Mediterranean World (CERMAM), although he raises the possibility that the Iranian official’s quote was distorted or taken out of context, he believes that the reaction of the Lebanese Prime Minister is legitimate. “ This declaration, coming from an important Iranian figure – the head of Parliament -, is an attack on Lebanese sovereignty by the Lebanese government and it provides an alibi, ultimately free of charge, for the Israelis to say: “But you see, ultimately, Lebanon does not control its security. Lebanon is not sovereign,” explains the political scientist at RFI.
The director of CERMAM believes that the“ guardianship presented by the head of the Iranian Parliament is disturbing ». “ It disturbs the head of government, it shows its limits. It seizes the opportunity of the absence of a President of the Republic for two years and places Iran as the State, which manages Lebanon, and it is it which will take the diplomatic initiative », he continues.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs still says it insisted on “ protection of the sovereignty and security of Lebanese territory “. The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured in mid-September in the explosion of a pager, like hundreds of members of Hezbollah, an operation attributed to Israel.
Also readLebanon: several dead and thousands of Hezbollah members injured in the explosion of their pagers
The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament met Najib Mikati in Beirut on October 12. He denounced “ the crimes » of Israel which is carrying out intense airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Lebanese Prime Minister said he had informed Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, as well as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had visited Lebanon earlier, “the need to understand the situation in Lebanon, subject to unprecedented Israeli aggression “.