TEHRAN – Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has urged different Lebanese groups to maintain their vigilance and unity in the face of the ill-wishers’ efforts to create division and tension in Lebanon.

Salehi made the remarks on Thursday in response to the recent developments in Lebanon which led to the collapse of the Lebanese government.
On Wednesday, 11 ministers of the March 8 Alliance, whose main parties are Hezbollah, Amal, and the Free Patriotic Movement, quit the Lebanese cabinet over tensions arising from a UN probe into the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, toppling the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri and throwing the country into disarray.
“It is expected that different Lebanese groups and factions maintain their vigilance and national unity and not allow the ill-wishers to create division and tension in the country,” he said.
Hopefully, Lebanon will weather the current crisis through negotiations between the Lebanese groups, and the leaders of the Lebanese factions will not allow interventionists to take advantage of the current political crisis in the country, he noted.
The chief Iranian diplomat also commented on the failure of the Syria-Saudi initiative, saying it was a good plan that could resolve the crisis in Lebanon, but the Saudi-Syrian efforts to settle the crisis reached a deadlock due to the interventions by certain ill-wishers, an indirect reference to U.S. meddling in Lebanon.
U.S., Israel blamed for collapse of Lebanon govt.
Deputy Foreign Minister for the Middle East Raouf Sheibani has also commented on the recent developments in Lebanon.
Israel and the United States “sabotaged” the plans and “obstructed” the efforts meant to resolve the political crisis facing Lebanon, so they are to blame for the collapse of Lebanon’s government.
“Sabotage and obstruction by America and the Zionist regime are the main causes of the failure of Syrian and Saudi efforts to find a solution for the current situation in Lebanon,” AFP quoted Sheibani as saying.
Sheibani also called for finding a solution to Lebanon’s crisis through mutual efforts by all Lebanese political parties to overcome the current situation and counter the “conspiracies of the ill-wishers.