Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says his government will not allow any party to drag the country into another war.
He was responding to comments by Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, who warned that the group will not stay neutral if the US attacks Iran.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Mr Salam said: “We are working to reclaim the decision of war and peace, and, for the first time in a long while, the armed forces fully control southern territory.
“We will not allow anyone to drag the country into a new adventure.”
He added that Hezbollah's war with Israel came with a “very high cost to Lebanon”.
Mr Qassem's warning about Hezbollah's intended response to any US attack on Iran has raised fears that Lebanon could once again be pulled into a regional escalation.
Iran has repeatedly warned that any attack on its territory would trigger a regional response, a stance widely understood to include the mobilisation of its allied armed groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah.
Lebanese officials have warned that such a scenario would carry a heavy cost for a country already struggling with economic collapse and political fragility following the recent war with Israel.
Mr Salam said the ultimate goal for his government is to restore the state in Lebanon. “We are committed to a path of reform and to restoring the country’s sovereignty – the two are inseparable,” he explained.
Mr Salam claimed that the scale of reforms carried out since his government took over a year ago is encouraging. “We are in the process of renewing and reforming the Lebanese public administration,” he clarified, adding that “investment opportunities in Lebanon are very large,” despite the fragile security situation.
Israel has been striking what it claims, without providing evidence, are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on a near-daily basis. This week, the Lebanese government said the Israelis had breached the ceasefire more than 2,000 times in the last quarter of 2025 alone.
Israel has also fortified five military positions it built inside Lebanon and continues to hold two buffer zones in another violation of the agreement, according to Unifil. The Israeli military was supposed to withdraw from Lebanon by January 2025, but has yet to do so.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's army has been tasked with disarming Hezbollah under the ceasefire deal, beginning in the southern border area. Last month, the military said it had completed the first phase of its disarmament plan. The US has expressed frustration about the pace of progress by the under-equipped Lebanese military.
