The caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, has rejected any move by Iran to hold talks on implementing a UN resolution concerning southern Lebanon, calling it "blatant interference" in his country's internal affairs.Responding to comments a day earlier by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Qalibaf that Tehran was ready to negotiate on the UN resolution that calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of international weapons or troops, Mikati said on October 18 that the Lebanese government was "surprised by this position."
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Qalibaf made the comments in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.
"The issue of negotiating the implementation of Resolution 1701 is the responsibility of the Lebanese state, and everyone is required to support it in this direction, rather than seeking to impose new guardianships that are rejected on all national and sovereign grounds."
The UN resolution authorizes a peacekeeping mission, called UNIFIL, to help Lebanon keep the border area secure.
The Israeli army launched a ground incursion into the southern border area earlier this month, saying it was pushing out militants from Iran-backed Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, and that UNIFIL has failed in its mission.
Several UN peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon have since come under fire, but a UNIFIL spokesperson on October 18 said the mission would remain in Lebanon despite the attacks.
"We need to stay, they asked us to move," said UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti by video link from Beirut.
"The devastation and destruction of many villages along the Blue Line, and even beyond, is shocking," he said.
The Blue Line refers to a demarcation created by the UN to separate Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union blacklists its armed wing but not its political party. Hezbollah’s political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament.