(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and other Lebanese officials praised the deal reached between Iran and world powers Tuesday and expressed hope that the agreement would usher a new era of peace to Lebanon and the Middle East.
“We hope that this development will have positive repercussions on the situation in the Middle East, in a way that helps reduce tensions and spreads peace and stability,” Salam said in a statement.
Before the agreement was reached, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Sunday that an Iranian nuclear deal could help pave the way to ending the presidential vacuum in Lebanon.
Other leaders from opposing parties also expressed their delight, including Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Marada Movement chief Sleiman Frangieh, and former President Michel Sleiman.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblatt were the only officials in Lebanon who spoke against the deal on Tuesday.
“Some have hopes about the nuclear deal but I disagree,” Geagea told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
He said the deal is only a “mere agreement” and that it can potentially “aggravate” the situation in the Middle East.
Jumblatt said the deal “excludes Arabs…with total disregard for the Palestinian cause” and provided a “boost” to the “murderous” regime of Bashar Assad.
Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations will be lifted, in return for Iran’s acceptance of long-term curbs on its nuclear program, which the West had claimed was aimed at creating a nuclear weapon.
The lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets in the United States will provide Iran with billions of dollars.
The former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Sadegh Kharazi, was quoted as saying by The Guardian that the deal ended the “Cold War” between Iran and the United States.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the agreement as a “historic mistake” and said he would do what he could to block Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons. Many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders in Jerusalem.
“Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world. This is a bad mistake of historic proportions.”