No armed groups allowed in Lebanon, president tells Hezbollah's ally Iran
During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's top security body, Joseph Aoun warned against foreign interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect.
Larijani said the Islamic Republic supports Lebanon's sovereignty and does not interfere in its decision-making.
"Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us," he said after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement is an ally of Hezbollah.
By "resistance", Larijani was alluding to the Shi'ite Muslim militant Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982, grew into a "state-within-a-state" force better armed than the Lebanese army and has repeatedly fought Israel over the decades.
"Iran didn't bring any plan to Lebanon, the U.S. did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines", said Larijani.
He said Lebanon should not "mix its enemies with its friends - your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance".
"I recommend to Lebanon to always appreciate the value of resistance."
The U.S. submitted a plan through President Donald Trump's envoy to the region, Tom Barrack, setting out the most detailed steps yet for disarming Hezbollah, which has rejected mounting calls to disarm since its devastating war with Israel last year.
Hezbollah has rejected repeated calls to relinquish its weaponry although it was seriously weakened in the war, with Israel killing most of its leadership in airstrikes and bombings.
It was the climax of a conflict that began in October 2023 when the group opened fire at Israeli positions along Lebanon's southern frontier in support of its Palestinian Islamist ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.
Aoun also said recent remarks by some Iranian officials had not been helpful, and reaffirmed that the Lebanese state and its armed forces were solely responsible for protecting all citizens.
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran supported any decision Hezbollah makes, adding that this was not the first attempt to strip the group of its weapons.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BreakingNews.ie
a few seconds ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza ahead of offensive
Israel announced on Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Cogat, said the supply of tents and other shelter equipment to the territory would resume on Sunday ahead of the mass movement of Palestinians to the south. Advertisement The military said it had no comment on when that movement would begin. Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a 'nationwide day of stoppage' in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of war. Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war – a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have also made in recent weeks. Advertisement 'I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,' said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity. She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv.
Reuters
a few seconds ago
- Reuters
Ukraine says it presses Russian troops back on part of Sumy front
KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 square kilometres in the region, according to Ukraine's battlefield mapping project DeepState. "Ukrainian soldiers continue active combat actions to destroy the enemy and liberate our settlements," the Ukrainian general staff wrote on Facebook. It added that fighting was raging near the villages of Oleksiivka and Yunakivka, which lie 5 km and 7 km from the Russian border respectively. The ebb and flow of the battlefield lines have taken on greater political significance in recent days as Ukraine finds itself at another critical diplomatic juncture with U.S. President Donald Trump stepping up his efforts to broker an end to the war. The U.S. leader said he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had "determined" there should be no ceasefire and he would now focus on a quick deal to end the war that has raged since 2022. Russian troops earlier this week advanced up to 10 km near Dobropillia in Ukraine's east, raising fears of a wider breakthrough that would further threaten key cities. The Ukrainian military later said it had managed to halt the assault and push Russians back. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the Russian thrust as a failed attempt by Moscow to display battlefield strength ahead of Friday's summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska. He predicted more such efforts in a statement on Saturday. "...we anticipate that in the coming days the Russian army may try to increase pressure and strikes against Ukrainian positions to create more favourable political circumstances for talks," he said.
The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israeli government official arrested in Nevada in internet crimes against children sting
An Israeli government cybersecurity official was reportedly arrested recently by Las Vegas police and other authorities in Nevada who were conducting an undercover investigation aimed at online users seeking to sexually prey on children. Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, faces felony charges of luring a child with a computer for a sex act, alongside several other suspects who were apprehended during the two-week sting operation, the Las Vegas metropolitan police department said in a statement published on Friday. He has since evidently been released from custody and returned to Israel. As first reported by the news site Mediaite, a publicly posted screenshot of Alexandrovich's page on the LinkedIn professional networking platform described him as the executive director of the Israel Cyber Directorate, an Israeli government agency under the purview of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Other information online attributes the same position to Alexandrovich. The screenshot first reported by Mediaite also showed a post under Alexandrovich's name alluding to his having been in Las Vegas earlier in August for the Black Hat Briefings, a yearly meeting of cybersecurity professionals. 'Two things you can't escape at Black Hat 2025: the relentless buz of generative [artificial intelligence] and the sound of Hebrew … in every corridor,' Alexandrovich wrote in part in an accompanying post. Invoking an abbreviation for large language models and referring to one of Israel's largest cities, the post continued: 'The key takeaway? The future of cybersecurity is being written in code, and it seems a significant part of it is being authored in #TelAviv and powered by LLMs. An exciting time to be in the field!' That LinkedIn page under Alexandrovich's name has since been deleted. The Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Wednesday that the US had detained 'an employee of the Israel National Cyber Directorate' for interrogation while he was representing his country at a professional conference. That employee then returned to his hotel and flew back to Israel two days later. 'Israeli officials downplayed the incident, saying it carried 'no political implications' and was resolved quickly,' Ynet reported, without naming Alexandrovich or mentioning he had been arrested in connection with a felony charge leveled against him by Nevada law enforcement officials. 'The reasons for the questioning remain unclear but may relate to the employee's conduct.' Mediaite reported that Netanyahu's office issued a statement denying that the employee in question had even been arrested. 'A state employee who traveled to the US for professional matters was questioned by American authorities during his stay,' the prime minister's office said. 'The employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled.' Nevada's internet crime against children taskforce helmed the operation which resulted in the arrests of Alexandrovich and seven other men in the city of Henderson, which is near Las Vegas. All eight suspects were brought to jail after their arrests, said the statement from the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, which participated in the operation alongside local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Under Nevada law, luring a child with a computer for a sex act can carry between one and 10 years in prison.
