Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States, in some of his toughest criticism yet of Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hizbollah as it wages war with Israel.
In a CNN interview, Aoun yesterday said ‘the people of Lebanon are paying the price ... for the sake’ of Iran’s interests, and were ‘fed up’ with war between Israel and Hizbollah – comments reflecting deep divisions along Lebanon’s confessional and political faultlines.
“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States,” Aoun said of Iran, according to excerpts of the interview published on the CNN website. “It’s unacceptable.”
Hizbollah, founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, ignited the latest hostilities more than three months ago when it opened fire in solidarity with Tehran as Iran came under US-Israeli attack.
Aoun has pressed for the peaceful disarmament of Hizbollah since being elected head of state by parliament last year. Early in the war, he called for face-to-face talks with Israel, further setting him at odds with the group.
Iran has made a Lebanon ceasefire a condition for any peace deal with Washington in the wider regional conflict that began with the US-Israeli attack on Tehran on February 28.
On Thursday, Hizbollah rejected a ceasefire plan agreed by Lebanese and Israeli government officials in US-mediated talks in Washington. The deal would be contingent on Hizbollah ceasing fire and its fighters withdrawing from southern Lebanon.
Hizbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a written statement on Thursday that direct Lebanon-Israel talks in Washington were rejected by ‘broad segments of the Lebanese people’.
Addressing Qassem, Aoun said: “The Lebanese people are not your people”.
Israeli attacks have killed thousands of people in Lebanon since March and displaced 1.2 million people, Lebanese authorities say. Israeli troops have occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon.
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