Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun giving a scathing criticism of Iran, accused the Islamic Republic on Friday of exploiting his war-torn nation as a bargaining chip in its ongoing war with the US and Israel, and demanding that Tehran immediately cease its intervention in Beirut’s affairs.
In an exclusive interview with CNN at the presidential palace in the capital, President Aoun said that the Lebanese people are “fed up” of the war between Israel and the powerful Iran-backed Islamist Hezbollah militia.
Addressing Iran, he said, “You are not trying to help us … the people of Lebanon are paying the price … for the sake of your own interest,” adding, “our interests … do not coincide with your interests.”
Further turning his ire towards Iran’s powerful theocratic guard, the IRGC, he called them a part of the problem, and said “It’s not your country, it’s our country,” rejecting a Wednesday statement by the Revolutionary Guards which demanded Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon as part of Tehran’s ceasefire agreement with Washington.
“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with US,” he said. “It’s unacceptable.”
While Jerusalem and Beirut had managed to agree upon a ceasefire framework on Wednesday, it remains contingent on a total stop to Hezbollah’s attacks on the IDF forces stationed in Lebanon, as well as the militia’s complete withdrawal from the country’s southern part.
“It was a tough negotiation until we had a major breakthrough,” Aoun said, adding that the agreement could be a path forward to a “just and lasting peace.”
However, Hezbollah, which itself wasn’t a part of the agreement has flatly rejected the deal, calling it tantamount to surrender, and an “appeasement” of Israeli demands.
In the past three months of its war with Hezbollah, the IDF has killed a total of 3,500 people as per estimates of the Lebanese Health Ministry, displaced a fifth of its population and established a buffer zone by occupying large areas of southern Lebanon, and lost 28 of its own soldiers.
