Salam criticized Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into the conflict by launching rockets at Israel.
“It was declared that this war was in retaliation for the assassination of Khamenei, so this means this war was imposed upon us,” he said.
Lebanon was drawn into the war after Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2, saying it was acting in response to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in Israeli-US strikes on February 28.
Referring to an incident earlier this month in which an Iranian-made drone struck a British base in Cyprus, Salam said the attack was carried out by the IRGC, “which is present and, unfortunately, is managing the military operation in Lebanon.”
“These people have forged passports and entered the country illegally,” he added.
Cyprus has said the drone was likely launched by Tehran-backed Hezbollah from Lebanon, rather than directly from Iran.
Salam also pointed to the IRGC’s announcement of joint operations with Hezbollah against Israel as evidence of its role in directing the conflict in Lebanon.
The Lebanese government this month decided to ban any activity by the IRGC in the country and took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military operations, calling on the group to hand over its weapons to the state.
“We are committed to the decisions we have made and we are working to implement them,” Salam said.
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