Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has sharply condemned Iran's interference in his country, accusing Tehran of exploiting Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States. Speaking in an interview broadcast on CNN on Friday, Aoun told Iran directly: "This is not your country, it is ours. You have no right to intervene in our country." Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam echoed this sentiment at a humanitarian conference in Beirut, urging Iran to "have mercy on southern Lebanon" and stop treating it and its people "as a tool to improve its negotiating position."

The statements come amid renewed conflict in Lebanon that erupted in early March, when Hezbollah — the Iran-backed Lebanese Islamist movement — attacked Israel following the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during an Israeli-American offensive on Iran on 28 February. Since then, more than 3,550 people have been killed in Lebanon. A fourth round of direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington concluded on Wednesday, producing a new agreement, after an earlier truce declared on 17 April had repeatedly failed to hold. The proposed deal conditions a ceasefire on a complete halt to Hezbollah's fire, while allowing Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon to continue for now. Tehran has demanded that any deal with Washington also include an end to hostilities on the Lebanese front, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards called on Thursday for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem rejected the Washington agreement on Thursday. Speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Bri also criticised the draft deal, calling it a "hybrid agreement" containing "booby-trapped" clauses, arguing that any acceptable arrangement must include an unconditional and comprehensive ceasefire and a parallel withdrawal of both Hezbollah fighters from south of the Litani River and Israeli forces from occupied areas. A Lebanese MP, Michel Douaihy, offered a different view, arguing the Washington agreement represents the best achievable outcome under current circumstances, and that Hezbollah's opposition stems from the Lebanese state having chosen to take the initiative and assume responsibility for protecting its citizens.

President Aoun called on Hezbollah to accept that diplomacy is the only viable path forward. "It is about the Lebanese people, not the people of Naim Qassem," he said, adding that "the majority of the Lebanese people are tired of war." He also pressed Israel to demonstrate genuine willingness to end hostilities, while insisting that the question of Hezbollah's arms — the only militia in Lebanon that refused to disarm following the country's 1975–1990 civil war — must be resolved through internal Lebanese political processes. The situation on the ground remained volatile on Friday, with the Israeli army issuing evacuation warnings to several towns in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah reporting drone strikes against Israeli forces in the area.