Lebanese President Joseph Aoun publicly accused Iran on Friday of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in the ongoing US-Iran negotiations, delivering the sharpest rebuke of Tehran from a sitting Lebanese leader in years as Israeli strikes continued across the south of the country despite a ceasefire deal nominally in place since June 1.
A Direct Challenge to Tehran
"Iran is using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States," Aoun said in a nationally televised address from the presidential palace in Baabda. "It is not your country. It is our country." He specifically called out the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the IRGC — accusing it of operating on Lebanese soil without the consent of the Lebanese state and of fueling a conflict the Lebanese government did not initiate and cannot control.
The remarks were extraordinary by any measure. Lebanese governments have historically avoided direct confrontation with Tehran, given Hezbollah's military dominance inside the country and its deep financial and operational ties to Iran. That Aoun chose this moment to speak publicly suggests the political calculus in Beirut has shifted in ways that could reshape the country's relationship with both Iran and the broader conflict.
Hezbollah Formally Rejects the Ceasefire
Hours before Aoun's address, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem formally rejected the ceasefire framework reached on June 1 under a US proposal. Qassem said Hezbollah would only accept a comprehensive ceasefire covering all Lebanese territory and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas south of the Litani River — two conditions Israel has rejected outright.
Hezbollah claimed it carried out approximately 20 attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon on Friday, calling them retaliation for ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire and for previous strikes on Lebanese villages that caused civilian casualties.
Israeli forces struck the city of Tyre overnight, killing seven people. One strike near the Jabal Amel hospital killed four and wounded seven more. Israel said its operations targeted active Hezbollah positions and were consistent with the ceasefire terms, which Tel Aviv says Hezbollah has also violated repeatedly since the deal was signed.
Iran Signals No Progress in Talks
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that "no tangible progress" had been made in negotiations to end the broader Middle East war — the conflict that began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury, a joint military campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure. The operation formally concluded May 5, but the conflict has since shifted into a phase of blockade diplomacy and proxy fighting, with Iran continuing to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Araghchi warned that any Israeli strike on Beirut would trigger what he called "a full-scale resumption" of direct US-Iran hostilities. The Iranian Navy has fired missiles and a drone as warning shots against US destroyers in the Sea of Oman in recent days, a provocation Washington described as "dangerous and destabilizing."
Washington's Fractured Diplomatic Track
For the Biden successor administration in Washington, the splintered negotiating environment is becoming a liability. Multiple diplomatic sources confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday that the most sensitive negotiations — on the Iran war, on Lebanon, on Ukraine — are being handled not by career State Department officials but by Trump associates and family-adjacent figures with limited regional expertise. The State Department has seen a significant exodus of experienced career diplomats since the start of the year.
The UN Special Envoy for Lebanon, Maria Kristiansen, issued a statement Friday urging "all parties to honor existing ceasefire commitments immediately," adding that the situation in southern Lebanon is "deteriorating faster than diplomatic processes can track."
A Humanitarian Reckoning
The UN World Food Programme has now confirmed that 45 million people across the broader Middle East region are at risk of acute food insecurity — a figure the WFP first projected in March when oil was near $100 a barrel, a level prices have sustained. The conflict's disruption of Strait of Hormuz shipping and Red Sea transit routes has pushed up the cost of everything from cooking fuel to imported grain in countries that can least afford it.
On Capitol Hill, the House advanced a separate measure Friday providing Ukraine $8 billion in loans and $300 million in long-term security assistance, passing over the objections of Republican leadership and the near-certain threat of a presidential veto. The vote illustrated the growing fissures within the GOP over US global engagement at a moment when Washington's capacity to lead on multiple simultaneous crises is being openly questioned by allies and adversaries alike.
For Lebanon, the immediate question is whether Aoun's unusual willingness to name Iran publicly changes anything on the ground. It may not. But it signals that the Lebanese state, weakened as it is, is trying to assert a form of national sovereignty at one of the most dangerous moments it has faced in decades — and that the country's leadership no longer sees silence as a viable strategy.