BEIRUT (news agencies) — A top Iranian official pledged his country’s unwavering support for Lebanon after talks Friday with Lebanese leaders on the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the United States continued actively pushing both sides to agree to a new cease-fire deal.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that he hoped circumstances would soon improve in Lebanon so that displaced people could return home.
“The main aim of our visit is to loudly say that we will stand by Lebanon’s government and people,” Larijani told reporters after separate meetings with parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
The U.S. has been trying to broker an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the 13-month Israel-Hamas war broadened in September into southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, and Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza.
According to reports in Lebanese media, U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson has handed over a draft of a proposed deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah war to Berri, who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.
A Lebanese official confirmed Friday that Johnson visited Berri, but refused to say whether a draft was handed over.
Another Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal that the U.S. sees as suitable to end the Israel-Hezbollah war based on U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the war in summer of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
The official did not give details other than to say Israel was insisting that some guarantees be included.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.
The U.S. Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.
Larijani flew in Friday from neighboring Syria where he held similar talks a day earlier with President Bashar Assad. Syria’s state news agency said that Assad and Larijani discussed the “ongoing aggression on Palestine and Lebanon and the necessity of stopping it.”
In addition to supporting Hamas, Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
Asked if he was visiting to try and thwart U.S. efforts to end the Israel-Hezbollah war, Larijani said, “We are not trying to blow up any effort, but we want to solve the problem and we will stand by Lebanon, whatever the circumstances.”
Mikati, who in recent weeks has become more critical of Iran’s role in Lebanon and has been calling on Tehran not to intervene in the country’s internal affairs, told Larijani that Lebanon wants the ongoing war to end and that work is ongoing to reach a cease-fire, according to comments released by his office.
“Contacts are ongoing in this framework with the aim of reaching an understanding,” Mikati said.
He added that Lebanon wants to see implemented the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war “in all its details.” That resolution says that there should be no armed presence in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel other than the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.
Larijani’s visit to the Lebanese capital was punctuated with a renewed aerial attack by Israel on the southeastern edge of the city.
An image captured by an media photographer showed what appeared to be an 11-story residential building in the Tayouneh area, a few kilometers or miles from central Beirut, about to be hit by a bomb, then bursting into flames.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the bomb hit a lower level of the building, turning much of it to rubble. The Israeli military had issued a warning before the attack, saying it was a facility that belonged to Hezbollah.
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