BEIRUT: Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi on Friday urged his visiting Iranian counterpart to find a “new approach” to the thorny issue of disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Lebanon is under heavy US pressure to disarm Hezbollah, which was heavily weakened in more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, but Iran and the group have expressed opposition to the move.
Iran has long wielded substantial influence in Lebanon by funding and arming Hezbollah, but as the balance of power shifted since the recent conflict, officials have been more critical toward Tehran.
“The defense of Lebanon is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state,” which must have a monopoly on weapons, Raggi told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a Lebanese foreign ministry statement said.
Raggi called on Iran to engage in talks with Lebanon to find “a new approach to the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons, drawing on Iran’s relationship with the party, so that these weapons do not become a pretext for weakening Lebanon.”
He asked Araghchi “whether Tehran would accept the presence of an illegal armed organization on its own territory.”
Last month, Raggi declined an invitation to visit Iran and proposed meeting in a neutral third country.
Lebanon’s army said Thursday that it had completed the first phase of disarming Hezbollah, doing so in the south Lebanon area near the border with Israel, which called the efforts “far from sufficient.”
Araghchi also met President Joseph Aoun on Friday and was set to hold talks with several other senior officials.
After arriving on Thursday, he visited the mausoleum of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli air strike on south Beirut in September 2024.
Last August, Lebanese leaders firmly rejected any efforts at foreign interference during a visit by Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, with the prime minister saying Beirut would “tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat” after Tehran voiced opposition to plans to disarm Hezbollah.
Lebanon FM urges Iran to find ‘new approach’ on Hezbollah arms
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Lebanon FM urges Iran to find ‘new approach’ on Hezbollah arms
- “The defense of Lebanon is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state,” which must have a monopoly on weapons, Raggi told Araghchi
- He called on Iran to engage in talks to find “a new approach to the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons”
Syrian Democratic Forces withdraws from east of Aleppo
RIYADH: Syrian Democratic Forces have withdrawn from positions east of Aleppo, according to SDF head Mazloum Abdi.
He announced Friday that SDF will withdraw from east of Aleppo at 7 AM local time on Saturday and redeploy them to areas east of the Euphrates, citing calls from friendly countries and mediators.
Hours earlier, a U.S. military designation had visited Deir Hafer and met with SDF officials in an apparent attempt to tamp down tensions.
The U.S. has good relations with both sides and has urged calm. A spokesperson for the U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shortly before Abdi’s announcement, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had announced issuance of a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.
A wave of displacement
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people carrying their belongings arrived in government-held areas in northern Syria ahead of the anticipated offensive by Syrian troops on territory held by Kurdish-led fighters.
Many of the civilians who fled were seen using side roads to reach government-held areas because the main highway was blocked at a checkpoint in the town of Deir Hafer controlled by the SDF.
The Syrian army said late Wednesday that civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and then extended the evacuation period another day, saying the SDF had stopped civilians from leaving.
There had been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides in the area before that.
Men, women and children arrived on the government side of the line in cars and pickup trucks that were packed with bags of clothes, mattresses and other belongings. They were met by local officials who directed them to shelters.
* with input from Reuters, AP
