Qassem meets Iranian officials prior to their departure from Lebanon
Hezbollah said Wednesday that its chief Sheikh Naim Qassem met with Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “prior to their departure from Lebanon.”
The meeting was held in the presence of Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani and tackled the latest local, regional and international developments, Hezbollah said in a statement, apparently confirming Qassem’s presence in Lebanon, after media reports speculated that he had fled to Iran during the latest war with Israel.
Ghalibaf and Araghchi had led an Iranian delegation to the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine on Sunday. An Iranian delegation also met with President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Aoun told the Iranian delegation that the war-scarred country was "tired" of external conflicts playing out on its territory.
"Lebanon has grown tired of the wars of others on its land," Aoun told the Iranian officials. Aoun is a former army chief seen as close to the West.
"Countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," he added.
Long the dominant force in Lebanon, Hezbollah suffered staggering losses in the war with Israel compounded by a seismic blow with the December fall of ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria -- long used as the militant group's weapons lifeline from Iran.
Hezbollah's weakening allowed Lebanon's divided parliament to elect Aoun, seen as Washington's preferred candidate, after more than two years of presidential vacuum, followed by the approval of a new prime minister and government.
Aoun said Lebanon wanted "the best relations with Tehran, for the benefit of both countries and peoples."
The Iranian delegation landed in Beirut although regular flights between the two countries had been suspended.
The ban, which prompted protests from Hezbollah supporters, came after the United States warned that Israel might target Lebanon's only international airport in Beirut to thwart alleged money shipments from Iran, a Lebanese security source had told AFP.
In a televised address to tens of thousands attending Nasrallah's funeral in a Beirut stadium, Qassem said he refused for "tyrant America to control" Lebanon.
The United States helped broker the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, which ended more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war that killed longtime leader Nasrallah in September.
The fighting, launched by Hezbollah in support of Palestinian ally Hamas in the early days of the Gaza war, killed thousands in Lebanon and left large swathes of the country's south in ruins.
Israel has on several occasions accused Hezbollah of using the airport in Beirut to bring in weapons from Iran. The group as well as Lebanese leaders have denied the allegations.
Source: Naharnet
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