Lebanon issues rare rebuke to Iran over 'interference'

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's caretaker prime minister on Friday made a rare rebuke to Iran and said Tehran's envoy should be summoned over reported comments by a senior Iranian official that it would be ready to help "negotiate" to implement a U.N. resolution on Lebanon.

Lebanese PM Najib Mikati said in a statement the comments amounted to "a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs".

Criticism of Iran by top Lebanese officials is unusual, particularly given Tehran's sponsorship of the powerful Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is currently locked in battles against Israeli troops along Lebanon's southern border.

In an interview published in France's Le Figaro on Thursday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf was quoted as saying his country would be ready to "negotiate" with France to implement United Nations Resolution 1701.

That resolution, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.

Mikati said on Friday that he was "surprised" by Ghalibaf's comments and said they were an attempt to "establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon".

He said such a negotiation was the prerogative of the Lebanese state and asked Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to summon Iran's Chargé d'Affaires in Beirut.

There was no immediate comment from Ghalibaf or from Iran's embassy in Beirut.

An unnamed Iranian source close to Ghalibaf denied the interpretation of the speaker's comments, telling pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that any collaboration with Europe would aim to reach a ceasefire that is backed by Lebanon's government and "resistance," in a reference to Hezbollah.

(Reporting by Amina Ismail and Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Clauda Tanios and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai; Editing by Gareth Jones, Andrew Heavens and Angus MacSwan)