Tehran’s offer to join negotiations over Lebanon escalates diplomatic tensions

In an unprecedented move, Tehran has reached out to France about the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon, angering Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

French newspaper Le Figaro published an interview with the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, on Thursday. Ghalibaf reached out to France, suggesting that Iran could participate in the negotiations surrounding the implementation of Resolution 1701. 

According to the resolution, which was passed in 2006, Hezbollah forces must not be present within 30 km (18.6 miles) of the border with Israel. The resolution was devised 18 years ago as a means of bringing an end to the Second Lebanon War between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist organization but has never been implemented.

The Iranian parliament speaker also called for a ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been not only demanding a ceasefire but also an end to Israel’s military activity in Lebanon, even going so far as to call for an arms embargo against Israel. Since France once had a mandate in Lebanon and was a colonial ruler of the formerly Christian country, Macron has both influence and interests.

However, Mikati, expressed frustration with the move, saying: “We are surprised by this position, which constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon,” according to the government statement cited by the Times of Israel.

These developments have only served to heighten tensions between Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two leaders have publicly clashed over each other’s remarks in both public and private statements. 

Netanyahu disapproved of Macron’s plans to convene with anti-Israel countries, such as South Africa and Algeria, to discuss the situation in Lebanon. He remained undeterred from pursuing his war objectives, which include ensuring that northern Israeli evacuees would be able to return to their homes.

In a readout of a phone conversation, Netanyahu told Macron, “Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this and which does not stop Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping.”

Resolution 1701 was established by the United Nations Security Council, giving UNIFIL, a UN peacekeeping mission, permission to assist the Lebanese Armed Forces in keeping the south of the country “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon.”

Despite a UNIFIL presence near the border, efforts to keep Hezbollah out of the specified area have largely failed, as the IDF discovered. Huge caches of weapons and widespread tunnels, similar to Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip, were located just meters from UNIFIL lookouts and bases.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese proxy of Iran, has built up staggering amounts of arms and weaponry, now having the eighth largest missile capability in the world despite being a non-state actor, according to Colonel Miri Eisin, an expert in military intelligence and government spokesperson during the Second Lebanon War. 

The terror group boasts over 100,000 fighters, a higher number than the national Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), and also enjoys a measure of political influence, holding seats in the Lebanese parliament and even governmental positions.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah legislator in the Lebanese parliament, said its military command plans to continue fighting “with all available means,” to keep Israel from achieving its goals and pushing Israel into a ceasefire agreement.

Fadlallah told reporters: “Our goal today is to end the aggression. We will not go into any detail related to the mechanism or solutions.”