TEHRAN -- Iran’s foreign
minister says the Islamic Republic is ready to help Lebanon weather its current economic crisis if the Lebanese government officially asks for it.
In an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Manar television network in Beirut, Hussein Amir-Abdollahian made it clear that Iran respects Lebanon’s sovereignty.
He stressed that the Islamic Republic is ready to provide Lebanon with all kinds of aid despite the difficult economic situation that Iran itself is facing.
Iran began to send fuel to Lebanon in August through the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, which announced the purchase of Iranian fuel shipments after the Lebanese government’s failure to deal with the country’s crippling fuel shortages.
The third tanker carrying Iranian fuel has already reached Syria to be transferred to neighboring Lebanon, while Tehran has expressed readiness to sell its fuel directly to the Lebanese government.
Pointing to Iran’s support for the Lebanese resistance to preserve the Arab country’s security and sovereignty, the Iranian foreign minister said such support will continue.
The chief Iranian diplomat also told Al-Manar that Iran supports any peace effort in Lebanon and warned against France’s interference in the Arab country’s domestic affairs.
During the interview, Amir-Abdollahian mentioned Iran’s latest military exercise in its northwestern area, saying the drill’s message was one of peace and friendship with neighbors and preventing the presence of the Zionists in the region.
“We told the Republic of Azerbaijan that the presence of Israel in that country is not in the interest of peace in our region,” he said.
Early this month, the Iranian army’s ground force staged a drill, codenamed Fatehan-e Kheybar, in northwestern Iran.
Amir-Abdollahian maintained that the Islamic Republic’s military presence anywhere in the region, whether in northern Iran or the Persian Gulf, has always carried a message of peace and security.
The Zionist regime, according to Amir-Abdollahian, has received the message of resistance. “The Zionist regime cannot expand in the region. They are imprisoned in a large jail called the occupied territories,” he added.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Monday urged all regional countries to pay attention to the fact that the region needs calm.
“Our region is a very sensitive region and some developments in this region have made the atmosphere more sensitive,” he said.
On Iran’s drills in the northwestern region of the country, the spokesman said Iran had officially informed neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan, beforehand.
“We had told them that it was a normal and routine exercise,” he stated. “These are the norms of neighborliness, and if one does not observe them, it shows that it is a little far from the atmosphere of maturity in international relations.”
At the same time, he said, Tehran has always had a brotherly attitude towards Baku.

Referring to the Zionist regime’s presence in Azerbaijan, he said that the Islamic Republic does not joke with anyone when it comes to its national security. “All our neighbors know this well,” he asserted.
“The Zionist regime has brought insecurity and instability to anyone it has gone. The Zionist regime definitely wants to see this region insecure. Tehran and Baku must be careful that third parties would not interfere in these good relations.”
He reiterated that Iran will not tolerate the occupying regime of Israel’s presence near its borders.
Elsewhere during the interview, Amir-Abdollahian stressed that the U.S. military’s withdrawal from the region will definitely happen.
“The Americans do not see their continued presence in the region in their favor, although they continue to push for a small military presence in parts of the region. This form of large American presence in the region is going to come to an end,” he said.
He also commemorated Iran’s legendary commander, General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq by the U.S. military in January 2020, hailing him as a national and international hero in the fight against terrorism.
Gen. Soleimani, with the cooperation of Hezbollah and Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese forces, succeeded in the fight against terrorism, the foreign minister added.
Since the assassination, Iraqi resistance groups have stepped up efforts to expel all American forces from their country.