Iran’s role is “extremely negative” and its regional policies are among the “chief sources of instability” in Lebanon and across the Middle East, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajj said on Friday. Rajj’s shared his comments, which he made in an interview with Qatar’s Al Jazeera, in a series of English-language X posts on Monday.
Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, “brought [Israeli] occupation onto Lebanese territory” and its weapons “must be handed over to the Lebanese state” before the end of the year, the diplomat wrote. “By the end of 2025, the area south of the Litani River must be free of all illegal weapons, and by the end of 2026, the Lebanese Armed Forces must have completed the process of confining all weapons to the state across the entire Lebanese territory,” he added.
For weeks, Beirut has “been receiving warning messages from multiple international and Arab parties indicating Israel is preparing for wide-scale attacks,” he continued. “Lebanon is intensifying its diplomatic efforts to shield the state and its institutions.” Rajj’s criticism of Iran comes on the backdrop of his refusal to travel to the Islamic Republic for negotiations on disarming Hezbollah. “I could not accept [the] invitation to visit Tehran under the current circumstances,” Beirut’s top diplomat wrote on X on Wednesday. (Read More)