Iran will support any decision taken by the Lebanese government and Lebanon’s “resistance” in current talks on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said on Friday.
“We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems,” Larijani said after meeting Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Larijani, referring to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. said Iran would support the “resistance” under all circumstances.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, spoke during a visit to Beirut as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the Lebanese capital.
Ceasefire efforts
The US ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal on Thursday to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters.
The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said. The sources did not provide details about the contents of the proposal.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Berri, Larijani said Berri had provided him with “good clarifications.”
“We are after a solution to the problems. We support in all circumstances the Lebanese government. Those who are disrupting are Netanyahu and his people,” Larijani said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported that Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire with the aim of delivering an early foreign policy win to US President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to be strongly pro-Israel.
