Khatibzadeh: Lebanon Must Be Included in Any Final Deal With Iran
TEHRAN -- Iran’s Deputy
Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Lebanon must be included in any final agreement to end the war on Iran, and that the United States bears full responsibility for violating the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and failing to honor its commitments.
Khatibzadeh, who visited Lebanon this week, said his meetings in Beirut, including sessions at the Foreign Ministry and with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Prime Minister’s office, were productive.
He said Tehran insisted during the visit on bringing viewpoints closer together and ensuring Lebanon is fully included in any final agreement.
“The occupying Israeli entity must end the war in Syria and in Lebanon,” Khatibzadeh said, noting that the situation in the region is deeply interconnected.
He stressed that one of Iran’s fundamental conditions in any mediation process is the cessation of wars on all fronts, declaring: “If these wars remain on any of the fronts, that means the war is ongoing on all fronts.”
Khatibzadeh pointed to the blatant violation of the Islamabad MoU, stating that everyone knows the agreement “was violated by the Zionists and the Americans through their attack on Lebanon and Iran” just days after it was signed.
He said what is unfolding today is a direct continuation of this path of betrayal, noting that “the entity opened the Washington track, which has proven its failure, in order to sabotage the Islamabad peace and open direct negotiations with Lebanon to destroy it.”
Khatibzadeh underscored that the Israeli regime consistently evades all its commitments and is “the son and creation of the United States in the region.”
“We consider that controlling this entity falls on the shoulders of Washington,” which has exerted pressure on the regime as a result of peace efforts.
Addressing Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah, Khatibzadeh said: “Hezbollah is a Lebanese party that was founded as a result