BAIRUT, JUN 5: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told CNN that Iran was using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States.
Aoun has repeatedly sought to distance Lebanon from regional conflicts and has said decisions concerning the country’s sovereignty and security must be made by the Lebanese state alone.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday urged Iran to stop treating his country, where Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah are at war, as a “bargaining chip” in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict.
“If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations,” Salam told a press conference for a UN aid appeal for Lebanon.
