By Nohad Topalian | 2025-08-23

BEIRUT -- Lebanon delivered an unprecedented rebuke to Iran this month, telling Tehran's top security official that the country is no longer under Iran's "patronage" and will not tolerate Iranian interference in its affairs.

The confrontation came during an August 13 meeting between Iranian National Security Council chief Ali Larijani and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The Lebanese leaders' blunt message followed their government's historic August 5 decision to disarm Hizbullah by year's end and task the Lebanese Army with implementing the plan.

The Iranian regime's response was swift and defiant. Senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran's leader, openly opposed Lebanon's sovereign decision and pledged support for Hizbullah's opposition to disarmament.

Guardian Council secretary Ahmad Jinnati went further. He dismissed disarmament efforts as "absolute delusions," while Deputy Quds Force Coordinator Iraj Masjedi warned that "this dream will die" with those who pursue it, according to Iranian media reports.

The Iranian interference prompted Lebanon's Foreign Ministry to issue two separate statements denouncing what it called "a flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, unity, and stability."

Lebanese officials made clear that Iran's decades-long influence over their country through Hizbullah had reached its end.

President Aoun told Larijani that Lebanon "does not want anyone interfering in its own" affairs and that "no element, without exception, should bear arms and receive foreign help."

Prime Minister Salam was equally direct, stating that "Lebanon will in no way accept any interference in its internal affairs" and demanding that "all relations with Lebanon are conducted via its constitutional institutions, not via any political group or parallel channel."

'Hostage' to Hizbullah

The disarmament decision drew menacing threats from Hizbullah itself.

Leader Naim Qassem warned that "there will be no life in Lebanon" if the government confronts the group -- an illustration of how this Iranian proxy holds the Lebanese people hostage, analysts told Al-Fassel.

Political analyst Ali Hamadeh described Iran's intervention as "a continuation of its decades-long policy" aimed at preserving Hizbullah's stranglehold over Lebanon.

He called the government's decision "a major earthquake for Iran's influence in Lebanon, after Hizbullah spent decades controlling the country's political, security, and sovereign decisions while using its weapons to monopolize power, block reforms, and assassinate politicians."

Hizbullah is a "tool" for undermining Lebanon's stability, operating outside the authority of the Lebanese state, political analyst Michel Shamai told Al-Fassel.

"The group has repeatedly deployed its weapons to impose its views on the Lebanese, rather than to confront Israel," he said.

"Those weapons have been directed internally to undermine security and pursue agendas unrelated to national sovereignty."

Lebanon's decision seeks to restore the sovereignty and stability that have eluded the country since the Taif Agreement ended the civil war.

"The decision aligns with the Lebanese people's aspirations, not the Western dictates the so-called axis of resistance claims," Shamai said.

"All Lebanese want full sovereignty over their territory, a strong army, security, stability, and prosperity," he added.