Araghchi reportedly tells Rajji Hezbollah disarmament a 'Lebanese decision'

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday told his Lebanese counterpart Youssef Rajji in a meeting in Beirut that the issue of disarming Hezbollah is a decision that is up to Lebanon to take, sources told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath channel.

Araghchi also told Rajji that, in his personal opinion, “diplomacy alone might not be sufficient” to end Israel’s occupation of parts of south Lebanon, MTV reported.

Rajji meanwhile told the Iranian visitor that “there will be no reconstruction funds without disarming Hezbollah.”

He also told him that “coordination between the two countries should pass through the state” and that “solutions should come through diplomacy,” the sources told Al-Hadath.

Rajji added that “military adventures” had not ended Israel’s occupation and that “they have put Lebanon in a difficult situation,” the sources added.

Araghchi also met with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

“We look forward to having relations (with Lebanon) based on mutual respect and non-interference in each country’s internal affairs,” Araghchi told reporters after meeting Berri. He added that Iran backs a national dialogue in Lebanon between rival groups.

Iran condemns the occupation of Lebanese territories “by the Zionist entity and supports all efforts exerted by the Lebanese government and people to expel the occupiers through any way including diplomatic methods," Araghchi said, referring to five posts Israel refused to withdraw from earlier this year.

Iranian companies are ready to take part in Lebanon’s reconstruction if the Lebanese government wants that, Araghchi added.

Araghchi’s visit comes after Iran’s main Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel that left much of the Iran-backed group’s political and military leadership dead.

Araghchi’s visit is his first since October, which came at the height of the Israel-Hezbollah war that ended a month later with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The war killed more than 4,000 in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million people and caused destruction that the World Bank said will coast $11 billion in reconstruction.

Since the war ended, army commander Joseph Aoun was elected president and prominent jurist and diplomat Nawaf Salam became the country’s prime minister. Both Aoun and Salam have repeatedly said that only the state will monopolize the use of weapons in Lebanon.

The visit also comes after the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad was removed from power in December by insurgent groups opposed to Iran’s influence in the region. Assad was one of Tehran’s closest allies in the Arab world and his country was a main link for the flow of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah.

Over the past decades, Iran funded Hezbollah with billions of dollars and sent all types of weapons to the Lebanese group enjoying wide influence in the small nation through.

Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended, Lebanese authorities have taken tight measures at Beirut’s airport to prevent the flow of funds from Iran to Hezbollah and flights by Iranian companies have been suspended to Beirut.