“He sells out the one who stands by him, and buys the one standing against him. He abandons the one who supported him, and walks behind the one who is choking him,” Baqaei wrote in Arabic in a post shared on X Saturday.
The spokesperson also reposted an earlier message by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in which Iran’s top diplomat criticized Aoun’s comments.
Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, President Aoun accused Iran of using Lebanon as “a bargaining chip” in negotiations with the United States aimed at reaching a deal to permanently end the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran in late February.
“Had Lebanon been a bargaining chip for Iran, we would have reached a deal long ago,” Araghchi wrote in response.
Aoun’s remarks come as Iran insists that any agreement to end the war must include a halt to hostilities on all fronts, particularly in Lebanon, where the Hezbollah resistance movement has been engaged in clashes with Israel since early March.
Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel in retaliation for the assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who was martyred in an Israeli airstrike targeting his residence and office in Tehran on the first day of the war.
Prior to the escalation, Hezbollah and Israel had been observing a ceasefire that took effect in late November 2024, although the truce was repeatedly violated by the Israeli regime on a near-daily basis.
4194**9417