Sa’ar: Hezbollah, not Israel, is the one ‘breaching Lebanon’s sovereignty’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accuses Iran of indirectly occupying Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah, and defends Israel’s self-proclaimed security zone in southern Lebanon amid increasing concerns in Jerusalem of potential US limitations on its freedom of action there.

“I hear statements in the international community that Israel is breaching Lebanon’s sovereignty [by occupying a security zone]. This is not the truth. Hezbollah is breaching Lebanon’s sovereignty,” Sa’ar says in an interview at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem.

“Lebanon is under Iranian occupation — indirect by Hezbollah, but under an occupation. On the soil of Lebanon, there is a stronger army than the Lebanese Army, which is Hezbollah. And this is the core problem” to improving Israel-Lebanon ties, he says, adding he hopes talks between Beirut and Jerusalem today lead to “a common future” with Lebanon.

Defending Israel’s security zone, Sa’ar says, “I don’t think there is any other country in the world that would accept attacks from neighboring territory on its citizens, and we cannot as well.”