Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed on Saturday that the state was doing everything possible on the political and diplomatic levels to end Israel’s war on Lebanon and ease its catastrophic impact on the people, especially the displaced.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that diplomatic efforts have not reached their desired results because the situation in Lebanon is being tied to the crises and war in the region.
“We could have avoided being impacted by the conflict were it not for the strategic error committed by Hezbollah by being dragged us into it,” he added.
This been a catastrophe for Lebanon and “the environment that the party claims it wants to protect,” Salam went on to say.
The war has been imposed on all the Lebanese people, he reiterated. “It is not in their interest,” he declared, underscoring the need to end the war.
Moreover, the PM revealed that foreign efforts to end the war are being met with “an extreme hardline position by Israel” and the United States’ preoccupation with the ongoing war.
He said the war was having dangerous repercussions on the security of the Arab Gulf, condemning and questioning Iran’s attacks against countries that have extended their hands in friendship towards it and repeatedly expressed their opposition to war before it erupted.
Salam underlined his government’s determination to implement its latest decisions related to banning Hezbollah’s military and security operations.
The state’s armed forces and judiciary are carrying out their duties to that end, but the war is making implementation more difficult, he said.
On Lebanon’s decision to impose visas on visiting Iranians, the PM explained it was due to intelligence about Iranian Revolutionary Guards operations that could harm Lebanon’s national security.
Lebanon wants the best relations with Iran, state to state, Salam added, while categorically rejecting tying the Lebanese people’s interests to that of another country as has already happened.
On the displacement of the people of the South and Beirut’s southern suburbs, the PM said the government was sparing no effort to ease their suffering and meet their essential needs, such as food and medicine.
This is a major challenge given the state’s limited means, he acknowledged. He added that he was personally overseeing aid efforts.
Meanwhile, France has continued to exert efforts to resolve the crisis. President Emmanuel Macron held telephone talks with President Joseph Aoun for the third time in two days.
His efforts have yet to make any breakthrough, ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The situation needs more time, they revealed, expecting that mid-next week should witness renewed efforts.
Aoun also received a telephone call from Spain’s King Felipe, who expressed Madrid’s solidarity with Beirut.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah or “pay a very heavy price.”
“We (ISRAEL) have no territorial claims against Lebanon, but we will not accept a situation where what existed for many years — firing from Lebanese territory toward the State of Israel — is renewed,” Katz said in a statement.
“Therefore, we are turning and warning: act and take action before we act even more.”
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon urged Lebanon and Israel to enter talks to negotiate an end hostilities after the outbreak of a renewed Israel-Hezbollah war.
“As bad as things are today, they are set to get even worse,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said.
“Talks between Lebanon and Israel can be the game changer needed to save future generations from going, time and again, through the same nightmare”.
In December, Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives engaged in their first direct talks in decades as part of a meeting of a committee monitoring the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon was engulfed by the expanding Middle East war on Monday, after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel to avenge the death of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
