Hezbollah's Raad slams comments by US official as 'blatant interference'

The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, slammed comments by visiting U.S. official Morgan Ortagus on Friday as "blatant interference" in Lebanon's affairs.

Ortagus's statement was "full of malice and irresponsibility" and attacked a component of "Lebanese political life", Raad said in a statement, adding that the remarks amounted to "blatant interference in Lebanon's sovereignty".

Ortagus had said Washington considered Hezbollah's participation in Lebanon's next government a red line.

"Hezbollah was defeated by Israel and we are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah," Ortagus added.

A handful of angry supporters, waving Hezbollah's yellow flag, burned tires, blocking the road leading to Beirut’s international airport, with some of them spray-painting the Star of David and the words "USA" and "Trump" on the road for people to trample and cars to drive over.

Lebanon’s presidency meanwhile said in a statement on X: "Some of what was issued by the U.S. Deputy Envoy to the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, from Baabda expresses her point of view, and the Presidency is not concerned with it."

The Lebanese presidency had published a photo showing Ortagus shaking hands with Aoun while wearing a Star of David ring, with the image circulating widely on social media.

Also in response to Ortagus’s statement, the Jaafari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan — a senior Shiite cleric and staunch Hezbollah ally — said in a statement that "Hezbollah is a national and representative force of Lebanon."

"Hezbollah has not been defeated and will not be defeated — there is no power on earth that can eliminate Hezbollah. Sovereignty belongs solely to Lebanon and its national components, not to America and its exclusionary and destructive projects," he added. "A government without the national duo (Hezbollah and the Amal Movement) pushes the country into the unknown."