Head of the Kataeb Party’s Foreign Affairs Department, Marwan Abdallah, deemed the U.S. strikes on Iran as “inevitable” within the broader context of efforts to halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, following an initial Israeli assault that failed to push Iran back to the negotiating table.

"Since the beginning of the operation against Iran, the target was clear: to stop the nuclear programme, whether by force or by putting them on their knees and forcing them to come back to the negotiation table on U.S. terms," Abdallah said in an interview on BBC. “When this didn’t happen in the first round of strikes between Israel and Iran, the intervention of the U.S. was inevitable."

He cautioned that prolonging hostilities serves no one, urging the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah from dragging the country into a deepening regional conflict.

“The shorter this war takes, the better,” he said. “Lebanon has suffered enough.”

Abdallah, whose party has long opposed Hezbollah’s arsenal and Iran’s regional influence, said ending the conflict quickly was paramount for Lebanon after years of spill-over violence.

“Coming from Lebanon, we’ve been suffering from other people’s wars on our territory for a long time,” he said, recalling the fallout from the October 7 events and the destructive war that subsequently erupted between Hezbollah and Israel.

“War is not the solution, but if this is what it takes to end this once and for all, then they should all go back to the negotiation table and resolve this for good."

Abdallah argued that Iran, as a "destabilizing entity in the region," cannot continue to operate the same way it was operating for the past 40 years.

“We want to see this conflict ending by Iran agreeing to stop its missile programmes, to stop its nuclear proliferation and to stop acting as a destabilizing agent in the region via its proxy militias,” he stressed. "We have a new mindset in the region and a new path forward.”

Abdallah outlined what he described as two urgent responsibilities the Lebanese government must uphold to shield the country from the fallout of the escalating regional conflict. He stressed that Lebanon cannot afford to pay the price for external power struggles, particularly as the country continues to grapple with the aftermath of previous confrontations.

“First, we want the Lebanese government to make sure that no one from Lebanon intervenes in this war, and by no one we mean, especially, Hezbollah not entering the war in support of Iran and then dragging Lebanon into another destructive war,” he said.

Second, Beirut must “protect Lebanon’s airspace and civilian aircraft,” he added, after Israel and Iran traded missile and drone strikes that briefly disrupted regional aviation routes last week.