Iran says it has exchanged messages with U.S.

Iran and the United States have exchanged messages throughout Israel's military action against Hamas in Gaza, including about Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday.

"During this war and in the recent weeks, there was an exchange of messages between Iran and America," Hossein Amirabdollahian said through a translator at a press conference capping a day-long visit to Beirut.

He said the United States had asked Tehran to request Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, "not to get widely, fully involved in this war against" Israel.

Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli military along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier to support its Palestinian ally Hamas, and has vowed to "fight to the end" should Israel launch a full-scare war on Lebanon.

Israel launched a military offensive it says aims to destroy Hamas after the Islamist group staged a deadly cross-border assault on southern Israel on October 7.

The conflict has rippled across the region and earlier this month Washington staged strikes against Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.

Amirabdollahian on Saturday warned Israel against taking any steps towards a broader war against Lebanon, saying that would be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "last day."

He also said Iran saw a political solution as the only way to end the conflict in Gaza.

"Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution, and that we absolutely never sought to expand it," Amirabdollahian told a news conference earlier on Saturday alongside his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib.

He also said Tehran was in talks with Saudi Arabia on a political solution to hostilities in Gaza.

(Cover: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks to journalists during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, February 10, 2024. /CFP)