US asked Tehran to moderate Hezbollah, says Amirabdollahian

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States has exchanged messages with Iran since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, in particular to demand that Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Tehran, not get involved in the conflict in course since October 7, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday.

Hossein Amirabdollahian was in Beirut on Saturday for a one-day visit.

“During this war and in recent weeks, there has been an exchange of messages between Iran and America,” he said at a press conference in Beirut before his departure. His words were translated.

The United States, he said, urged Iranian authorities to ask Hezbollah “not to become widely, fully involved in this war.”

There have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Shiite Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and the Israeli army on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the start of hostilities on October 7 between the Jewish state and the Palestinian movement.

The head of Iranian diplomacy warned the Israeli authorities against any attempt to extend the conflict to Lebanon, stressing that this would be the “last day” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The only way out of the conflict between Israel and Hamas is a political solution, he argued.

“Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution and that we have never sought to extend it,” he said alongside his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib.

After Beirut, Hossein Amirabdollahian was expected in Syria, according to Syrian media.

(Report by Maya Gebeily, French version by Sophie Louet)