The media office of the Iraqi Prime Minister shows Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (right) and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a meeting at the government palace in the Green Zone in Baghdad, on June 1, 2025. (Credit: Media Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister/AFP.)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday condemned the "repeated Israeli attacks" on Lebanon and its sovereignty, while receiving Lebanese President Joseph Aoun for his first visit to Baghdad.
Israel continues its strikes on Lebanon claiming to target Hezbollah positions, despite the ceasefire that ended more than a year of conflict on Nov.27, including two months of open war with the pro-Iranian Shiite movement, which emerged significantly weakened from the confrontation.
On Sunday, as on Saturday and before that on Thursday, these bombings caused casualties in the south of the country, according to official Lebanese sources. The latest victim was killed this Sunday in an Israeli drone strike in Beit Lif (Bint Jbeil district), while another person was injured in Arnoun (Nabatieh), South Lebanon, according to reports from our local correspondent and the Health Ministry.
Since the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel came into effect on Nov. 27, 2024, at least 168 people have been killed in Israeli strikes and gunfire in Lebanon, according to our count.
During a press briefing alongside the Lebanese president in Baghdad, Sudani denounced the "repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon's sovereignty," calling it a "violation of international law."
"We reiterate the need to fully implement U.N. Resolution 1701," he said, referring to the Security Council text that ended a previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and served as the basis for the Nov. 2024 cease-fire agreement.
The resolution stipulates that only peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese army are deployed in southern Lebanon, where Israel has maintained five positions, despite the cease-fire agreement.
Sudani also said he discussed "joint opportunities in various fields" with Aoun, including "energy, telecommunications, and trade exchanges."
Dominated by a coalition of pro-Iranian Shiite political parties, the Iraqi government has long-standing close relations with Lebanon. Iraq thus hosted thousands of Lebanese refugees, mostly Shiites, fleeing the war and deadly Israeli bombings in the south and other Hezbollah strongholds in the autumn of 2024. Pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups are also staunch allies of Hezbollah.
Since the summer of 2021, oil-rich Iraq has supplied tons of fuel to Lebanon, mired in a severe economic crisis, to power its electricity plants. In early May, Lebanon also mentioned an upcoming shipment of 320,000 tons of wheat sent by Baghdad.
President Aoun "sincerely thanked" Iraq for "all the aid and donations" provided to his country. He also met with his Iraqi counterpart, Abdel Latif Rashid.