Lebanon’s Prime Minister has insisted that his government “will not allow” Hezbollah to drag it into a prospective war between the US and Iran, the terror group’s main backer.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Nawaf Salam said his country had “had enough adventures” with what he termed the “Gaza support war” – when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ October 7 massacres – and ruled out any further involvement with regional proxy conflicts.
Salam, a former ICJ president and ambassador to the UN, is, like President Joseph Aoun, a political independent and has little ideological truck with Hezbollah, despite generally being considered a prominent anti-Israel voice.
He also claimed during the event that the Lebanese Army now has “full operational control” of the area south of the Litani River.
Previously a Hezbollah stronghold, the IDF maintained a presence in the region despite a 2024 ceasefire, claiming that government forces had been too slow to deploy to replace terror operatives.
"I assure you that we have worked to reclaim the decision of war and peace, and the proof is that for the first time since 1969, the Lebanese government, through the Lebanese army and the Lebanese armed forces, has complete operational control over the south of the country,” Salam said.
"What he (Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem) is saying is that he will support Iran, but we are not going to allow it at all. We will not let anyone drag the country into a new adventure.
"We've had enough adventures. We entered the so-called 'Gaza support war'. Its cost to Lebanon was not only high, but it was extremely, extremely high, and no one is willing to expose the country to adventures of this kind anymore.”
Nonetheless, tensions remain high between Beirut and Jerusalem, with each accusing the other of a series of ceasefire violations in recent months.
Over the weekend, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) accused the IDF of hindering the work of its operatives and of dropping an “unknown chemical” in the country.
A Unifil spokesperson said that its operatives had been warned to “stay away and remain under cover” on Sunday while the drop of a “non-toxic chemical substance” was completed, forcing them to cancel “over a dozen activities”.
This was done close to the so-called “Blue Line” – the UN-recognised boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
The IDF declined the JC’s request to comment on the matter.
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