Lebanese urges Hezbollah to avoid US-Iran conflict
The Lebanese Government has urged the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah not to get involved if any fighting erupts between the United States and Iran, the Lebanese foreign minister said on Tuesday, expressing concerns about a new possible conflict with Israel.
Speaking to a small group of journalists in Geneva, Youssef Rajji said Lebanese officials had been warned that in the event of another Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel would strike harder against civilian infrastructure across Lebanon than in the previous round of fighting.
The appeal comes amid growing concerns that the US might carry out new strikes against Iran. Iran held annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second US aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East.
Both the US and Iran have signalled they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran's nuclear program fizzle out. Rajji said Lebanese authorities had appealed to Hezbollah, which has fought several wars with Israel, most recently in 2024, not to respond in any way that could trigger "bad situations" for Lebanese civilians.
"Lebanon has received signs that the Israelis could strike civilian infrastructure and maybe the airport" in Beirut, Rajji said in Geneva, where he was attending a Human Rights Council session. During the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, the airport was not hit and remained operational throughout the conflict. In a month-long war between the two in 2006, Israel struck the Beirut airport. Many Lebanese civilians have been killed, wounded or displaced in previous rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel a day after the militant Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the war in Gaza. After months of low-level fighting, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024, when Israel launched a bombardment that killed much of Hezbollah's leadership, followed by a ground invasion, severely weakening Hezbollah before a US-brokered ceasefire nominally halted the fighting. Israel has continued to launch near-daily strikes in Lebanon since the November 2024 ceasefire, which it says aims to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding.
