BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's president told a top Iranian security official Wednesday that Beirut rejects any foreign intervention in its internal affairs and wants Lebanon to remain stable and secure for the good of its people.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, is the most senior Iranian official to visit Beirut since the Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah group by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel.
Iran has lambasted the plan, while Hezbollah has refused to recognize it and vowed not to disarm. The Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get the militant group to lay down arms after a bruising war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November.
"Lebanon desires cooperation with Iran within the framework of sovereignty and friendship that are based on mutual respect," President Joseph Aoun said in remarks released by his office after meeting Larijani. He also said Lebanese-Iranian relations should be with all the people of Lebanon and not just one religious sect, criticizing recent comments by Iranian officials.
Larijani told reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that his country does not interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs, accusing the United States of "ordering" the Lebanese government to implement "a foreign plan."
The senior Iranian official also said his country rejected the plan and that any proposal to disarm Hezbollah should be part of an internal dialogue between the government and the Iran-backed group. He called on the Lebanese people to preserve "the resistance," saying that Iran will stand by Lebanon in case of any Israeli escalation and if Lebanon asks for help.
At Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters greeted Larijani while chanting "death to America" and waving Iranian flags and the group's yellow banners in a show of support for Tehran.
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Over the past four decades, Iran has funded and armed Hezbollah with billions of dollars, making it Tehran's strongest proxy in the region. Things changed recently and Hezbollah has been severely weakened by the 14-month war with Israel that left much of the group's political and military leadership dead.
The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost $11 billion in reconstruction.
Last week, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran is opposed to disarming Hezbollah, leading a harsh response from Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi, who said they "represent a flagrant and unacceptable interference in Lebanon's internal affairs."