Iran’s acting FM makes first visit to Lebanon to coordinate conflict with Israel

Iran’s acting foreign minister arrives in Lebanon on his first official diplomatic visit since his predecessor died in a helicopter crash last month.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reports that Ali Bagheri Kani will visit Lebanon and then Syria “to meet with the two countries’ officials as well as the officials of the resistance front to discuss ways to counter (Israel).”

Iran backs a number of armed factions in the region, of which Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah is widely seen as the most powerful.

Bagheri Kani’s predecessor, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a hardliner close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in a mountainous area near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, along with Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.

Bagheri Kani met with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib and praised the “close relations” between the two countries. He tells reporters that “resistance is the basis for stability in the region.”

“We agreed that all countries in the region, especially the Islamic countries, should adopt a joint movement in order to counter Israeli aggression and protect the Palestinian people, especially in Rafah,” he says.

Bou Habib said Lebanon, for its part, wants to avoid a wider war and is looking for “sustainable solutions that restore calm and stability to southern Lebanon.”