Le Drian: Hezbollah 'chose Iran over Lebanon'

BEIRUT — French President Emmanuel Macron’s special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on Friday denounced Hezbollah’s responsibility in the armed conflict in the Middle East, saying it “played Iran’s hand instead of Lebanon’s.”

In an interview with the French TV channel TF1, Le Drian continued: “They began striking Israel at the same time as the Iranians did, right at the start of the conflict, as if it were the Iranians firing. They made the choice of Iran over Lebanon.”

Le Drian, a former foreign minister, nonetheless judged that “the way Israel is responding, unfortunately, will solidify Shiite unity, because its reaction is disproportionate to the situation.”

Praising the “courage” of President Joseph Aoun and his government for seeking help from France, he said Emmanuel Macron “has taken the necessary initiatives” to reach a compromise as in the previous conflict in 2024.

Hezbollah opened a front of support with Iran last Monday, two days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, during which the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, was killed.

Hezbollah’s salvos of missiles on northern Israel triggered new, very violent airstrikes on several of its strongholds in the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and northern Bekaa. This escalation ended the November 2024 cease-fire.

Regarding the Israeli-American intervention in Iran, Le Drian said he was pessimistic about a quick resolution to the crisis. “It’s sometimes surprising that the Iranians strike everywhere.

In reality, what they want is to create chaos, to spark conflagration,” he observed. “They want to broaden [the strikes] to put pressure on President [Donald] Trump, to show him the damage the American intervention in Iran causes, and to put pressure on American public opinion.”

According to him, “France must be very vigilant” because the conflict will continue, given “Iran’s resilience and its desire to widen the conflict to set the whole region ablaze.”

“France is not in the war. This war is not ours. But France has friends and allies it must defend,” Le Drian also stressed.