BEIRUT: Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi on Friday urged his visiting Iranian counterpart to find a “new approach” to the thorny issue of disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Lebanon is under heavy US pressure to disarm Hezbollah, which was heavily weakened in more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, but Iran and the group have expressed opposition to the move.
Iran has long wielded substantial influence in Lebanon by funding and arming Hezbollah, but as the balance of power shifted since the recent conflict, officials have been more critical toward Tehran.
“The defense of Lebanon is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state,” which must have a monopoly on weapons, Raggi told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a Lebanese foreign ministry statement said.
Raggi called on Iran to engage in talks with Lebanon to find “a new approach to the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons, drawing on Iran’s relationship with the party, so that these weapons do not become a pretext for weakening Lebanon.”
