Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has delivered a stinging assessment of Iran's role in his country's affairs, telling the British daily The Times that Tehran's rejection of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire agreement was not merely a political stance, it was a deliberate signal that Iran considers itself the ultimate decision-maker in Lebanon.
Nawaf Salam © Mena Today
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has delivered a stinging assessment of Iran's role in his country's affairs, telling the British daily The Times that Tehran's rejection of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire agreement was not merely a political stance, it was a deliberate signal that Iran considers itself the ultimate decision-maker in Lebanon.
"Iran wanted to make the world understand that Lebanon is nothing but a pawn," Salam said, noting that Tehran announced its position before any official declaration from Hezbollah itself, a sequence he described as revealing the full extent of Iranian influence over the Shia movement.
The Lebanese prime minister went further, asserting that Iran's Revolutionary Guards had extended their grip beyond Hezbollah's military and security apparatus to encompass the party's decision-making process itself.
Crucially, Salam suggested that the late Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel in 2024, had enjoyed considerably more autonomy than the current Hezbollah leadership, implying that Iranian control has become more direct and decisive since his death.
Salam also made clear that Lebanon's reconstruction could only proceed through the Lebanese state and its official institutions, a pointed rejection of any parallel channels that would allow Hezbollah or Iran to control the post-war rebuilding process.
The remarks represent some of the most candid public criticism of Iranian interference in Lebanese affairs ever made by a sitting Lebanese prime minister.
A Hezbollah delegation, including family members of assassinated former Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and slain top commander Imad Mughniyeh, travelled to Tehran Friday to attend the official ceremony paying homage to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in an Israeli strike on February 28.
Lomé hosted Friday the opening of an extraordinary summit of the African Political Alliance (APA), bringing together ten African member states and representatives from Gulf countries - notably Kuwait and Qatar - to discuss the continent's response to the Middle East crisis and its far-reaching consequences for African economies.
The body of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was lying in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects after his 37-year rule.
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