Iran tells US and Israel to stop interfering in Lebanon affairs

Jan 19, 2011, 14:21 GMT

Beirut/Tehran(dpa)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday urged Israel, the United States and several European nations to stop meddling in Lebanon.

'I tell the Zionists and the US ... be ashamed of your interference in Lebanon and be sure that the Lebanese and regional nations will chop your dirty hands off,' the Iranian president said on a Lebanese television broadcast from the Iranian city of Yazd.

Addressing the US and Israel, Ahmadinejad said: 'Foreign interference has always made things more complicated and the Lebanese nation can manage by itself and with the help of its friends.'

The Iranian president said Lebanese officials were wise enough to be able to overcome the current political turmoil and 'make the enemies feel ashamed.'

Lebanon's national unity government collapsed last week after the Shiite movement Hezbollah and their allies withdrew from the cabinet to protest against caretaker Premier Saad Hariri's reluctance to cut ties with a UN tribunal, which is probing the 2005 assassination former premier Rafik Hariri.

Iran, which backs Hezbollah financially and militarily, has accused the international tribunal of being influenced by the US and Israel.

Hezbollah fears being implicated by the court's prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, who has filed confidential draft indictments to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's pre-trial judge, Daniel Fransen.

Hezbollah has warned in the past few months that it will 'cut off the hands' of whoever tries to accuse 'one single member' of the group in the Hariri murder.

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