DUBAI (Reuters) – Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said on Friday he rejected Iranian interference in a Lebanese matter, after the speaker of Iran’s parliament said Tehran was ready to negotiate with France on implementing a U.N. resolution concerning southern Lebanon.
U.N. Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state, with the aim of keeping peace on the border with Israel.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, made his comments in an interview published on Thursday.
“We are surprised by this position, which constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon,” a government statement quoted Prime Minister Najib Mikati as saying.
Mikati added that negotiating to implement U.N. resolution 1701 was a matter for the Lebanese state.
Under Resolution 1701, the United Nations Security Council authorised a U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL “to assist” Lebanese forces in ensuring southern Lebanon is “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon”.
Israel says the Lebanese army and UNIFIL have failed to secure the area. It started a ground operation in Lebanon on Oct. 1 after almost a year of ongoing hostilities with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in parallel with the war in Gaza.
The U.N. Security Council has expressed strong concerns after several U.N. peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon came under fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that it is time to withdraw UNIFIL.
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told Reuters on Monday he wanted to see “a more robust mandate for UNIFIL to deter Hezbollah”.
The peacekeeping mission is currently authorised until Aug. 31, 2025.
(Reporting by Clauda Tanios and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones)