U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would deal directly with Lebanon over the country’s future and would not negotiate with Iran on its behalf, describing Lebanon as a sovereign state and rejecting Tehran’s claim to a role in the conflict.

“Why would we negotiate Lebanon with Iran? What does Iran have to do with Lebanon? I mean, they can claim whatever they want, but Lebanon is its own country,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to France. “To figure out the future of Lebanon, we’ll deal with Lebanon, not with Iran.”

Rubio accused Tehran of acknowledging its role in supporting Hezbollah by seeking to include Lebanon in its ceasefire understandings with Washington.

“I think by saying that to you, they’re admitting that they are the ones that are behind Hezbollah that has destroyed that country,” he said. “Everything bad that’s happened to Lebanon has been the direct result of Hezbollah’s presence there.”

“We deal with the Lebanese government. We deal with President Aoun. We deal with the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Rubio added. “That’s who we did an agreement with Israel and Lebanon with. So why would we talk to Iran about Lebanon? It’s none of their business.”

Rubio was responding to a question about Tehran’s insistence that an end to the conflict in Lebanon be included in a ceasefire agreement with the United States, and whether Washington considered that demand unreasonable.

Iran has repeatedly called for an end to Israeli attacks and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory, arguing that these issues were covered by its ceasefire understanding with Washington.

Asked whether the United States would press Israel to restrain its attacks in Lebanon to help secure an agreement, Rubio said Washington was already working to advance direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.

“We’ve already been engaged in peace negotiations directly between Lebanon and the Israelis,” he said. “That’s created the pilot zones in the south, where the Israelis are pulling back from regions and the LAF is taking over them, and we’ve been on top of that and want that to continue to happen.”

Rubio said Washington was now working to establish a verification system to ensure both sides comply with their commitments.

“We are actively now trying to construct a verification model for that so that trusted verifiers can verify that both sides are complying,” he said.

He reiterated that the United States intended to act as a mediator between Lebanon and Israel, not between Iran and Israel over Lebanon.

“This is an issue we’re going to work on as mediators between Lebanon and Israel, not Iran,” Rubio said. “Iran has no role to play when it comes to Lebanon, other than stop sponsoring and supporting Hezbollah, because Hezbollah has done tremendous damage to the state of Lebanon and to the people of Lebanon.”