The message was conveyed through the Azerbaijani foreign minister.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Lebanon has passed on to Israel through a third party a message stating that it has no interest in hostilities with the Jewish state, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.
“We are interested in peace, we do not want war,” was the message Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib gave to the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov.
Bayramov then faithfully passed on the communication to Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday.
Katz sent a message back, stating, “We must return our residents safely their homes. If it is not through a diplomatic solution, it will be through war.”
As Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, and has repeatedly stated that it will not stop attacking Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, there are mixed messages coming out of Beirut.
With Hezbollah being first and foremost an Iranian proxy, doing what its masters order rather than what is good for Lebanon, the chance of a diplomatic solution that would push the terrorist organization out of firing range of northern Israel are also considered extremely slim.
The report said that the foreign ministry believes that the only nonmilitary solution that could work is putting diplomatic and economic pressure on Tehran.
It has ordered its diplomats around the world to urge their host governments to do so if they want to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Hezbollah has been firing thousands of projectiles at Israel to support Hamas ever since the Gazan terrorists invaded on October 7, killing 1,200 and sparking the ongoing war. The rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosive UAVs have killed 16 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians, wounded dozens more, damaged a huge amount of property and set fire to hundreds of dunam of land.
Some 60,000 residents were quickly evacuated from their border communities, but nine months later they are angry that their lives are still on hold, many with businesses destroyed and children who have not had proper schooling the entire year.
They are refusing to go back until the government puts an end to the murderous launches and guarantees that the Iranian terror proxy cannot invade their villages and towns and wantonly slaughter them like Hamas did in the south.
Israel knows that it cannot have its entire northern region shut down and keep intact the faith of its citizens as well its reputation as a strong player in the region.
Habib’s message stems from Lebanon’s knowledge that the chances are thus growing exponentially of an IDF confrontation with Hezbollah that goes well beyond its current policy of retaliatory, pinpoint airstrikes.
There is a very real fear in Lebanon that a war on its territory would destroy the country, considering its already very precarious economic state.
The post Lebanese FM to Israel – We don’t want a war appeared first on World Israel News.