Lebanon's President Blasts Iran, Hezbollah For Using Country As Bargaining Chip

Lebanon's president has angrily lashed out at both Hezbollah and Iran - the latter for using the Lebanese nation and people as a bargaining chip in the war and standoff with the United States and Israel.

President Joseph Aoun told CNN in a rare interview that Tehran is exploiting his war-torn nation and issued a fresh demand that Iran's leadership and military stop interfering in Lebanese affairs.

He stressed to Christiane Amanpour that the Lebanese people are "fed up" with the war - which started years ago on the heels of the Gaza war.

President Aoun at one point addressed Iran directly, saying "You are not trying to help us … the people of Lebanon are paying the price … for the sake of your own interest" - and added, "our interests … do not coincide with your interests."

Then specifically calling out the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he said: "It’s not your country, it’s our country."

Iran's leadership has been insistent on a Hezbollah/Lebanon-Israel ceasefire being part of any broader peace deal with Washington; however, the Lebanese government has negotiated a separate peace with Israel, and in Washington, which has in reality barely held.

"They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with US," Aoun told CNN. "It’s unacceptable."

He continued, "It was a tough negotiation until we had a major breakthrough." He optimistically assessed that this could serve as path forward to a "just and lasting peace."

Hezbollah, for its part, has been rejecting the deal - also after refusing to take part in negotiations. Hezbollah is denouncing that the US-brokered deal does not guarantee an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

On Friday, "The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Friday warned residents of six towns and villages including south Lebanon's Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate," according to CBS.

💢 Hezbollah released footage of an FPV drone strike on an Israeli army gathering and a Namer armored personnel carrier on the southern outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah in southern Lebanon, carried out June 2. The attack involved multiple FPV drones. pic.twitter.com/OFxuJ9XI25

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 5, 2026

"Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported mass displacement from the three villages named in the warning, and it subsequently reported a strike on one of the villages, Arqoun," the report continues.

And Al Jazeera also reports Friday that "Israel's deadly strikes continue across Lebanon, killing at least six today, despite the announcement of a new US-brokered ceasefire agreed between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington, DC."