As Tehran threatens, Beirut refuses to be Iran’s battlefield

Lebanon will no longer serve as a launchpad for threats against its Arab neighbours or as a forward defence line for other countries’ interests, Foreign Minister Joe Raggi declared on Saturday. 

His blunt message, delivered at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, came just hours after Iran’s Supreme Leader hinted that Hezbollah could join the fight if the United States attacks Iran.

“Foreign policy is decided in Beirut, and national security is the exclusive responsibility of the state,” Raggi told the gathering, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The timing was no accident. Earlier the same day, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned that any attack on his country would meet a response “without geographic limits,” stressing the strategic importance of the “unity of fronts,” a clear reference to Hezbollah, Tehran’s armed ally in Lebanon.

Raggi did not name Iran, but his target was unmistakable. No state, he said, has the right to pursue regional ambitions through armed groups operating outside the authority of legitimate governments.

Lebanon, he added, has paid a heavy price for years of foreign manipulation of armed organisations and the hijacking of its national decisions to serve agendas that have nothing to do with the interests of the Lebanese people.

The minister insisted that the government’s decisions to place all weapons under state control and to ban Hezbollah’s military and security activities are “not just political positions or declarations of intent.”

The Hezbollah problem

Words, however, are easier than action. Under pressure from Washington and Israel, Beirut has pledged to disarm Hezbollah. 

But the Iran-backed group refuses to hand over its arsenal and has kept the region guessing about whether it would enter the fray in the event of a US strike on Iran.

Raggi also made clear that full sovereignty cannot be restored without Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

In front of an audience of Gulf officials, the minister underlined the strength of Lebanon’s ties with Gulf states, acknowledging that relations had been strained by policies that put regional agendas ahead of Lebanon’s interests, an implicit nod to Hezbollah’s past role.

The 22nd Manama Dialogue, running until Sunday, has brought together delegations from some 50 countries as tensions between Washington and Tehran reach a new peak.