Lebanese President Joseph Aoun publicly accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States over the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict in a CNN interview on June 5, 2026 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. He said, "They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It’s unacceptable" [1].
Aoun criticized Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs, declaring, "This is not your country, this is our country," and asserting that the Lebanese people are suffering due to Iran's interests and exhaustion with the war["s3","s4","s8","s10","s11"]. He added, "The people of Lebanon are paying the price for the sake of Iran's interests, and are fed up with this war" [2].
The current hostilities began more than three months ago when Hezbollah, backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since 1982, opened fire in solidarity with Tehran following a US-Israeli military action against Iran on February 28, 2026 [1, 2, 6]. Since March, thousands have been killed in Lebanon from Israeli attacks, and approximately 1.2 million people have been displaced [1, 2, 6]. Israeli troops occupy parts of southern Lebanon.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 17, 2026, extended by Washington until early July as diplomatic efforts continue to maintain it [9]. On June 3, Israel and Lebanon agreed on a US-mediated ceasefire framework demanding Hezbollah cease fire and withdraw fighters from southern Lebanon [10, 5]. Hezbollah rejected the plan on June 4. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem claimed wide Lebanese opposition to the Washington agreement, but Aoun rejected this, saying, "The Lebanese people are not your people" [1, 2, 6].
Iran has conditioned any peace deal with the US on a ceasefire in Lebanon, further complicating negotiations [1, 2, 6]. Aoun accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of rejecting the ceasefire before others and using Lebanon as a negotiating tool [9, 5, 7]. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also called on Iran to stop leveraging southern Lebanon and pleaded, "Have mercy on our south and stop treating it and its people as merely leverage to improve the terms of your negotiations with the US" [9, 10].
Unlike Hezbollah, Aoun has called for Hezbollah’s peaceful disarmament and expressed openness to face-to-face talks with Israel but said such a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not happen before a peace agreement is reached [1, 2, 6, 5].
