Lebanon will no longer serve as a launchpad for threats against its Arab neighbours or as a forward defence line for other countries' interests, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji declared on Saturday at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, MENA Today reported. 'Foreign policy is decided in Beirut, and national security is the exclusive responsibility of the state,' Rajji told the gathering, which is organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Source: MENA Today (Oct 31, 2026)

Rajji spoke in the Dialogue's plenary session on Eastern Mediterranean security, alongside IISS chair Mark Sedwill, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Musa Kulaklikaya and UN Assistant Secretary-General Abdallah Al Dardari, according to the session's published listing. The 22nd Manama Dialogue runs until Sunday and has brought together delegations from some 50 countries, MENA Today reported.

Delivered hours after Khamenei's warning

The timing underlined the message. Earlier the same day, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a statement ordering Iran's armed forces to be prepared to respond to any attacks, saying any threat must be met with an 'immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response', Reuters reported. Khamenei stressed what he called the 'unity of fronts' — a clear reference to Hezbollah, Tehran's armed ally in Lebanon, MENA Today reported.

Rajji did not name Iran, but his target was unmistakable, the report said. No state, he said, has the right to pursue regional ambitions through armed groups operating outside the authority of legitimate governments. Lebanon, he added, has paid a heavy price for years of foreign manipulation of armed organisations and the hijacking of its national decisions to serve agendas that have nothing to do with the interests of the Lebanese people.

Weapons under state control — 'not just declarations'

The minister insisted that the Lebanese government's decisions to place all weapons under state control and to ban Hezbollah's military and security activities are 'not just political positions or declarations of intent', MENA Today reported. Under pressure from Washington and Israel, Beirut has pledged to disarm Hezbollah, but the Iran-backed group refuses to hand over its arsenal and has kept the region guessing about whether it would enter the fray if the United States strikes Iran again.

Rajji also made clear that full sovereignty cannot be restored without Israel's withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the report said. In front of an audience of Gulf officials, he underlined the strength of Lebanon's ties with Gulf states, acknowledging that relations had been strained by policies that put regional agendas ahead of Lebanon's interests — an implicit reference to Hezbollah's past role.

Why it matters beyond Beirut: Lebanon hosts a large share of the fighting risk in any renewed US-Iran war, and Gulf states — where lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers live — are watching whether Beirut can keep its territory out of a regional confrontation. Rajji's statement is the Lebanese government's public line, delivered at the region's main security forum on the same day Tehran raised its own warning; whether Hezbollah acts on that line is a separate question that Saturday's speeches did not answer.