Working to avoid war with Israel, says Lebanon PM

Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday he was working to ensure his country does not enter the Hamas-Israel war, even as Hizbollah and Israel have been exchanging cross-border fire.

Mikati said he feared an escalation, with the border skirmishes stoking concerns that Lebanon's powerful Hizbollah movement could open a new front with Israel.

"I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war" raging further south, Mikati said in an interview.

Cash-strapped Lebanon is facing the possibility of war essentially leaderless, as political divisions have left the country without a president for a year, while Mikati has headed a caretaker cabinet for about a year and a half. "Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," he added.

Mikati, who is on good terms with Hizbollah, said he has no "clear answer" about whether war loomed ahead, adding that "it depends on regional developments."

In 2006, Israel and Hizbollah fought a bloody conflict that left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers.

"For now Hizbollah has managed the situation rationally and wisely, and the rules of the game have remained constrained to certain limits," Mikati said. "But at the same time I feel like I cannot reassure Lebanese" because the situation is still developing, he added.

Hizbollah, which has a more powerful arsenal than Lebanon's own army, has so far restricted itself to targeting Israel's northern border region, with Israel striking back.

The movement's leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to make a televised speech on Friday, Hizbollah has said, his first such address since Hamas's Oct.7 assault on Israel.

Skirmishes on the Lebanon-Israel border have killed at least 62 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, mostly Hizbollah combatants but also four civilians including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Israeli officials have reported four deaths, including one civilian. Mikati said any escalation could extend beyond Lebanon.

"I cannot rule out an escalation because there is a race to reach a ceasefire before escalation spreads in the entire region," Mikati said. "I fear that... chaos could engulf the entire Middle East," he also said.

Hizbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israel almost daily over the past three weeks.

Lebanon witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity at the start of the escalation, with high officials visiting the country and Mikati going on an official trip Sunday to Qatar- which is mediating peace efforts in the Hamas-Israel war.

Qatar was playing "an important mediation role," Mikati told reporters. "Mediation almost succeeded last Friday, but was disrupted when the Israelis began ground operations in Gaza," he said.

Agence France-Presse