Iran backs Lebanese government on ceasefire talks, advisor to Khamenei says

DUBAI: Iran will support any decision taken by the Lebanese government and Lebanon’s “resistance” in current talks on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hebollah conflict, Ali Larijani, senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said on Friday.

“We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems,” Larijani said after meeting caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

Larijani, referring to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. said Iran would support the “resistance” under all circumstances.

Earlier today, an Israeli airstrike flattened a building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions on Friday, shaking the capital as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the city.

One of several airstrikes on Friday morning, the attack struck near the Tayouneh junction in an area where the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city, a more central target than most that Israel has hit.

Israel has this week stepped up airstrikes against the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs – an escalation that has coincided with in U.S.-led diplomatic contacts towards ending the conflict.

The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon on Thursday submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters without providing details.

The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said.