Lebanese FM to Israel: We are interested in peace

The Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib sent a special third-party message to Foreign Minister Israel Katz explaining to him that his country did not want a war to break out between them.

"We are interested in peace, we do not want war,” Habib said, in a statement that was delivered through the Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov who spoke with Katz on Tuesday. Their conversation was conveyed to The Jerusalem Post by Katz’s spokesperson.

Lebanon and Israel do not have diplomatic relations, so communications between them are unusual and often done through third parties. 

Habib spoke up amid growing fear of a Third Lebanon War after almost nine months of cross-border violence between the IDF and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group located in Lebanon along its border with Israel.

Hezbollah has launched consistent attacks against the northern part of the country since Hamas invaded southern Israel on October 7.

In a show of solidarity with the Iranian proxy group Hamas, it has insisted that it won’t stop that violence until such time as there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Some 60,000 Israelis who were evacuated from their homes when the cross-border violence began in October have been unable to return home.

Israel has preferred a diplomatic solution but has consistently said that it would launch a campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to push the terror group back behind the Litani River. 

According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which codified the ceasefire agreement that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the Lebanese army is the only military group that is allowed to be situated on the border with Israel.

Katz sent a message back to Habib stating, "We need to return our residents to their homes, if it is not through a diplomatic solution, it will be through war.”

On Monday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel had effectively lost sovereignty over the northern part of the country, given that it was unsafe for Israelis.

Bayramov said that the Lebanese had chosen him to deliver the message because they knew of the good relationship that existed between Azerbaijan and Israel.

Katz in his conversation with Bayramov blamed Iran, which borders Azerbaijan, explaining that the Islamic Republic was stoking regional tensions, as he called for increased sanctions against it.

Last week Katz held an assessment of the situation with his senior team, in which he said that the possibility of a larger war had increased.

It was not expected, Katz explained, that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah would agree to a diplomatic solution so that only political and economic pressure on Iran would prevent an all-out war.

Israeli ambassadors have been urged to speak with the governments where they are posted, asking them to exert pressure on Iran. 

The ambassadors were instructed to press for the immediate implementation of Resolution 1701 and the immediate withdrawal of Hezbollah forces to the north of the Litani River.