Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has urged Iran to stop treating his country, where Israel and Hezbollah are at war, as a “bargaining chip” in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict, AFP reports.

“If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations,” Salam tells a press conference for a UN aid appeal for Lebanon.