Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday said he would not accept anyone dragging "the country into adventures that threaten its security and unity", in an indirect message to the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Reuters/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday said he would not accept anyone dragging "the country into adventures that threaten its security and unity", in an indirect message to the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
In a statement released after Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran, Salam noted the "serious developments" in the region and called on "all Lebanese to act with wisdom and patriotism, placing Lebanon and the Lebanese people’s interests above any other consideration".
Hezbollah has fought numerous conflicts with Israel since it was established by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Israel had warned Lebanon that it would strike the country hard, targeting civilian infrastructure including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any U.S.-Iran war.
"I reiterate that we will not accept anyone dragging the country into adventures that threaten its security and unity," Salam said in a statement sent to Reuters.
Israel dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah during a war in 2024, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with thousands of its fighters and destroying much of its arsenal.
Reporting by Maya Gebeily
The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike on a bridge in southern Lebanon on Friday, in what appeared to be the first time in the current campaign against Hezbollah that it acknowledged attacking civilian infrastructure.
In his first press conference since the outbreak of war against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out Thursday, on day 13 of the joint US-Israel offensive, a bold and explicit three-part war agenda that goes far beyond military strikes.
Israeli airstrikes hit a building in the heart of Beirut on Thursday and Israel ordered residents out of another swathe of southern Lebanon, intensifying its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
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