Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has stressed that Tehran is not “interfering in Lebanon’s internal affairs.”

“But that does not prevent us from expressing our opinions and stances and this is what all countries are doing. Saudi Arabia for example is expressing its viewpoint on Lebanon and that is not considered interference,” Araghchi said in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Lebanese state media said U.S. envoy Tom Barrack cut short a visit to the south on Wednesday amid protests in two planned stops against U.S. pressure to disarm Hezbollah.

The official National News Agency (NNA) reported that Barrack arrived by helicopter at a Lebanese Army barracks in Marjayoun near the border, with soldiers deploying in the area.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wedneday expressed frustration and said U.S. envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus "brought nothing from Israel" and "came with something contrary to what they had promised us."

“Things have once again become complicated,” Berri said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack told Lebanese journalists at a press conference at the country's presidential palace on Tuesday to "act civilized," sparking outcry and calls for an apology.

As journalists shouted questions after the U.S. delegation's meeting with President Joseph Aoun, Barrack stepped up to the podium in the packed room and said: "We're going to have a different set of rules... please be quiet for a moment."

A new U.N. draft text seen by AFP would extend the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission followed by its withdrawal by the end of 2027.

The force was first deployed in south Lebanon in 1978 and was expanded after the 2006 war.

At the start of a news conference at the Baabda Palace on Tuesday, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack warned raucous journalists to be quiet, telling them to “act civilized, act kind, act tolerant.”

He threatened to end the conference early otherwise.

President Joseph Aoun stressed Tuesday to a visiting U.S. delegation that Lebanon is “fully committed” to the Nov. 27 cessation of hostilities declaration and to the joint U.S.-Lebanese paper that was approved in Cabinet on August 5 and 7 without any selectivity.

The U.S. delegation comprised special envoys to Lebanon Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lindsey Graham, and Representative Joe Wilson.

Visiting U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus has said that the U.S. wants “the same thing that President (Joseph) Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and even (Speaker) Nabih Berri want, which is a strong and independent and sovereign Lebanon.”

“We don’t want Lebanon controlled by anybody but the state and its people, and I think the people who truly care about Lebanon, the people who truly care about Lebanese people are looking to strengthen the state and its institutions, and not to give power to outside forces that continue to disrupt Lebanon,” Ortagus said in an interview with the This Is Beirut news portal.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is “leading political negotiations on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria with U.S. support,” an Israeli source told the Israel Hayom newspaper on Tuesday.

An unnamed Israeli political official told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya television on Tuesday that “regardless of the internal debate in Lebanon” on Hezbollah’s disarmament, Israel will “continue its attacks to disarm Hezbollah.”

“The Lebanese Army and government must act firmly against Hezbollah,” the Israeli official added.