ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday urged Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to “save Lebanon from your real foe,” highlighting Israel's ongoing military campaign after Aoun accused Iran of interfering in Lebanon and using the country as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States.

“Based on Mr. Aoun's comments, one would think it's Iran that has occupied 1/5 of Lebanon, displaced 1/4 of Lebanese and [is] bombing his country on daily basis,” Araghchi wrote on X.

“Had Lebanon been a bargaining chip for Iran, we'd have a deal long ago. Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr. President,” he added.

Araghchi's remarks came in response to comments Aoun made in an interview with CNN, in which he rejected what he described as Iranian interference in Lebanon.

“It's not your country, it's our country, our obligation, it's not your job to interfere into our country,” Aoun said.

Aoun also said Iran was “using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States,” calling it “unacceptable.”

Tehran has insisted on linking any prospective peace deal with Washington to an agreeable ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah are engaged in daily combat that, according to the Lebanese health ministry, has killed over 3,500 people in the Levantine state.

The Lebanese government on Wednesday reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel on Wednesday, though the Iran-backed Hezbollah have dismissed it as “futile, humiliating, and disgraceful for Lebanon” as the conflict rages on unabated.

Key to the accord is Beirut's pledge to restrict arms to state ownership, entailing so-called "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon's Hezbollah strongholds where the state military plans to bolster its presence and squeeze out Hezbollah.

Referring to Hezbollah, Aoun said the group “must understand that there is no other way to solve the issue and save what's left except through negotiations and diplomacy.”

Despite longstanding Lebanese plans to disarm the Shiite militant group, Hezbollah maintains a strong presence in parts of the country and launched strikes on Israel in early March following the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

In a press conference on Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on Tehran to "have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip."

"We are the people of a sovereign nation that refuses to serve as... an open battlefield for their wars."

In March, Beirut declared Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani as persona non grata, saying that he "made statements in which he interfered in the internal politics of Lebanon and assessed the decisions taken by the government. In addition, he held meetings with unofficial Lebanese parties without going through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."