Salam says Lebanon wants 'state-to-state relation' with Iran

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said that Lebanon wants “a state-to-state relationship with Iran based on mutual respect,” adding that “this is what we asked of the Iranians” during his meeting with the Iranian delegation in New York.

As for the trilateral agreement with Israel, Salam told Asharq Bloomberg in an interview that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “is aligned with us on the necessity of having a verification process for the trilateral agreement.”

Turning to Hezbollah’s weapons and the state’s monopoly on arms, Salam said: “We agreed on placing all weapons under the exclusive authority of the state. Hezbollah agreed to this by being part of the government. We reiterated it in the ministerial statement, and Parliament granted us confidence on that basis.”