Elie Mahfoud, head of Lebanon’s Forces of Change parliamentary bloc, said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had overstepped “the position of the Presidency, which represents the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and the dignity of its people,” by criticising Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun.

“Once again, Iranian officials insist on addressing the Lebanese with a guardian and ruler mindset, as if Lebanon were a province subordinate to Tehran rather than an independent state with sovereignty and free decision-making,” Mahfoud said in a post on X.

Mahfoud called “to sever relations with any state that opposes Lebanon or treats it with superiority and disdain or violates its right to be a free and independent sovereign.”