WarSclerotic

‘Ahmadinejad visit proves Lebanon has joined axis of extreme nations’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Top Israeli official says Iranian President visits Lebanon like a ‘commander inspecting his troops.’

By Barak Ravid and News Agencies

Israeli officials were trying to keep a low profile both in the media and in the field in order to prevent escalation of already high tensions along Israel’s shared border with Lebanon, as thousands of Shiite supporters welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Beirut on Wednesday.

	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arriving in downtown Beirut on Wednesday October 13, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

Israel’s main efforts concentrated on the conveying of diplomatic messages to the Lebanese government via the U.S., France the United Nations, among them the demand to avoid provocations along the border.

Israel’s stance, which has been clearly expressed over recent days, is that Ahmadinejad’s visit proves that Lebanon is becoming more extreme, on its way to becoming an Iranian outpost. “Lebanon has joined the axis of extreme nations which object to the peace process and support terror,” said a senior Israeli official involved in preparations for the two-day visit.

The official added that “Iran’s president is visiting Lebanon like a commander coming to inspect his troops – Hezbollah terrorists – who serve as a wing of Iran’s military in the region. Anyone who holds peace and freedom dear is watching this Iranian provocation with concern. Lebanon, which could have enjoyed peace and prosperity, has turned into the servant of the Iranian aggressor, led by Hezbollah.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. also expressed concern over Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit to Lebanon, saying support for Hezbollah militants undermines Lebanese sovereignty.

Ahmadinejad is continuing his “provocative ways,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday.

“We reject any efforts to destabilize or inflame tensions within Lebanon,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. “We would hope that no visitor would do anything or say anything that would give cause to greater tension or instability in that country.”

Allies of the Western-backed, mainly Sunni parties that hold a slim majority in the Lebanese parliament also showed their worry.

A group of 250 politicians, lawyers and activists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad, criticizing his support of Hezbollah.

“Your talk of ‘changing the face of the region starting with Lebanon’ and ‘wiping Israel off the map through the force of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon’ … makes it seem like your visit is that of a high commander to his front line,” the letter said.

In Tripoli, a mainly Sunni city in the north, posters have gone up in recent days showing Ahmadinejad’s face crossed out, above the words: No welcome to the rule of clerics.

While Ahmadinejad was formally invited by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and was to meet on Thursday with the head of the pro-Western bloc in the government – Prime Minister Saad Hariri – the splashiest welcome came from Hezbollah, Iran’s stalwart ally.

Ahmadinejad’s first state visit is a bold demonstration by Shiite-dominated Iran that it is undeterred by U.S. attempts to isolate it and roll back the clout Tehran has built up around the Middle East through its alliances with militant groups like Hezbollah and its accelerating nuclear program.

The first visit by an Iranian president in seven years, it also underlines the eroding position of the West’s allies in the deeply divided country. A fragile unity government that combines a Western-backed coalition with Hezbollah and its allies is in power, but many fear it could soon collapse because of their rivalries.

While he was greeted with joy by many Shiites, Ahmadinejad’s dramatic arrival only exacerbated fears among many Lebanese – particularly Sunnis and
Christians – that Iran and Hezbollah are seeking to impose their will on the country and possibly pull Lebanon into a conflict with Israel.

Standing alongside Suleiman at a news conference, the Iranian leader sought to depict his country as an ally of the entire nation, not just the Shiite Hezbollah movement.

“We seek a unified, modern Lebanon, and we will stand with the people and government of Lebanon – and with all elements in the Lebanese nation – until they achieve all their goals,” Ahmadinejad said, adding that both countries oppose Israeli aggression.

“We completely support the Lebanese people’s fight against the Zionist enemy,” he said.

Hezbollah boasts widespread support among Shiites, virtually runs a state-within-a-state in Shiite areas and its guerrillas are Lebanon’s strongest armed force. Iran, whose ties to the group date back nearly 30 years, funds Hezbollah to the tune of millions of dollars a year and is believed the supply much of its arsenal.

Iran also helped rebuild homes in southern Lebanon’s Shiite heartland after the widespread destruction caused in Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel.

For Ahmadinejad’s arrival, thousands of Lebanese – mainly Hezbollah supporters – lined the highway from the airport into Beirut, waving Lebanese and Iranian flags while loudspeakers blasted anthems and women in the crowd sold Hezbollah flags and balloons to onlookers.

Trailed by heavily armed security in bulletproof vests, Ahmadinejad smiled and waved to the crowds from the sunroof of his black SUV as he headed from the airport to the presidential palace to meet Suleiman.

“Ahmadinejad has done a lot for Lebanon, we are here to thank him,” said Fatima Mazeh, an 18-year-old engineering student who took the day off from classes to join the crowds. “He’s not controlling Lebanon. Everyone has a mind and can think for himself. We are here to stand with him during the hardest times.”

Ali Chehade, a 32-year-old math teacher, told his kids to take the day off for the visit.

“Ahmadinejad is a big leader in the region because of his words about the resistance,” he said, referring to Iran’s support for what Hezbollah touts as its armed resistance to Israel.

KAHLILI: Ahmadinejad’s Lebanon victory lap – Washington Times.

As West sues for peace, Islamic regime boldly advances

A giant poster of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on display in the southern village of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010, in preparation for Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit there. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon today marks not only a historic point for the Islamic regime in Iran but also its victory over Israel and the West in gaining control of Lebanon. This reinforces for the Iranians that their philosophy of radicalism and strategy of terrorism have big payoffs.

Just a few years into the Iranian revolution of 1979, supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the Revolutionary Guards to take the fight to the Americans and Israelis and expand their operation in Lebanon. I was a member of the guards then and was told that the Shiite militias of the Amal Movement did not have the courage and the commitment to Allah to fight the Israelis and that there was a need for a more aggressive force committed to martyrdom and the destruction of Israel and America. This was when the guards created Hezbollah by sending hundreds of their officers into Lebanon along with planes loaded with arms and explosives.

The guards recruited aggressively in Lebanon, bringing recruits to Iran to train them at the guards’ bases or sending them for training to Syria or other countries. They even did some preliminary training in Lebanese mosques. Nearly half of this training was dedicated to inculcating ideology and driving home how Allah mandated martyrdom for the glorification of Islam. This effort created Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and soon led to terrorist acts like the bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, where 241 U.S. servicemen were killed. Four years after this suicide bombing, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, then minister of the Revolutionary Guards, boasted, “Both the TNT and the ideology which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs and soldiers at the Marine headquarters were provided by Iran.”

In response, America packed its bags and left Lebanon. This action marked the beginning of the Islamic regime’s dominance in the Middle East because it fostered the rulers’ conviction that Allah was behind them and that they could cause even a superpower such as America to kneel. The clerics and the guards became emboldened, expanding their terror network and infusing it with the martyrdom ideology set on destroying Israel and bringing down the West.

Through Hezbollah, many Americans were taken hostage, tortured and killed. Among them were William Francis Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, whose body was not returned until several years after his murder; Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver aboard TWA Flight 847, whose body was dumped on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport; and William Richard Higgins, U.S. Marine Corps colonel serving on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. The guards also committed or abetted the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1989; the 1994 Jewish Community Center bombing in Buenos Aires; and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

The radicals ruling Iran successfully derailed every peace initiative between Israeli and Palestinian authorities by having their proxies carry out suicide bomb attacks that drew responses from Israel. They used this same strategy in 2006 when the regime learned that the George W. Bush administration was ready to take action against the Revolutionary Guards. To divert attention, they used Hezbollah to attack Israeli forces and take the wounded hostage. This resulted in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in which hundreds of civilians on both sides lost their lives. Iranian rulers claimed victory and then provided hundreds of millions of dollars for Hezbollah to rebuild. They rearmed Hezbollah with more than 40,000 long-range, high-payload rockets despite U.N. Resolution 1701, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Today, Hezbollah, a terrorist group, is much stronger than ever before. It plays a significant role in the Lebanese government, and it is determined in its goal of the destruction of Israel and the demise of the West. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory lap in Lebanon is therefore a sign that terrorism and radicalism are winning over freedom, democracy and humanity.

The radicals in Iran are continuing their human rights violations. They are killing Iranian men and women fighting for their freedom. They are arming Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists who are killing our soldiers in Afghanistan. They are training Shiite militias and arming them in Iraq. They are providing arms and training to Hamas. They are inciting uprisings in Bahrain and Yemen. They are forming alliances and expanding their terror network through Venezuela. They are doing the same in Eritrea, where soldiers, ballistic missiles, submarines and naval vessels have been deployed to Assab to threaten the shipping lines and facilitate the move of terror cells into other parts of that region.

Meanwhile, the West continues to provide legitimacy to terrorism and the terrorists’ criminal activity by maintaining its policy of appeasement and negotiation.

The lesson is that as long as the West continues to move its lines in the sand and as long as we turn our back on our principles in an effort to negotiate a solution with the Islamic regime in Iran, the terrorists will become more emboldened in their mission of raising the flag of Islam in all corners of the world. If Mr. Ahmadinejad’s photo op in Lebanon is not a wake-up call for Western leaders, then once Iran has its nuclear weapons ready, it will be too late to stop the ambitions of a government that truly believes in a new world order, one in which Israel will no longer exist and America will no longer be the superpower it once was.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for an ex-CIA spy who worked in Iran. He is author of “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010).

Ahmadinejad in Beirut: We’ll keep supporting Lebanon, fighting Zionist enemy – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iranian president meets with Lebanese officials following tumultuous welcome in Beirut; Foreign Ministry: Ahmadinejad’s visit is intentionally provocative.

By Avi Issacharoff, Amos Harel and The Associated Press

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed on Wednesday by thousands of Lebanese – mostly Hezbollah supporters – in a visit that underscores the deep divisions between the Shiite militant group and the country’s pro-Western factions.

	A poster of Ahmadinejad in the southern Lebanon village of Bint Jbail yesterday
	Photo by: AP

During a news conference with Lebanese President Michael Suleiman, Ahmadinejad said he was a friend of all Lebanese, and emphasized the need to fight Israel.

“We seek a unified, modern Lebanon, and we stand by the Lebanese government and
people,” he said.

He said both Lebanon and Iran oppose the occupation and aggression and the crimes committed by the “Zionist enemy” and those who support it.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Ahmadinejad visit is intentionally provocative. “It is quite clear that he is the bearer of a violent message. He comes to a highly volatile region with the intention to play with fire,” he said.

“It emphasizes that a state within a state has emerged in Lebanon over the last few years, referring obviously to the Hezbollah state,” he added. “It seems that after he stole votes in Tehran, he is now coming here to steal the whole country.”

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives at Beirut International Airport on Oct. 13, 2010.AP

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Representatives from Hezbollah and several pro-U.S. factions attended as Suleiman welcomed Ahmadinejad at the presidential palace. The outspoken leader is expected to meet with a number of public figures and dignitaries during his visit, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Thousands of Lebanese lined the main highway into the capital from Beirut’s airport, where Ahmadinejad arrived Wednesday. Many waved Lebanese and Iranian flags, and giant posters of Ahmadinejad towered over the road, while loudspeakers blasted anthems and women in the crowd sold Hezbollah flags and balloons to onlookers.

The crowd broke into cheers and threw sweets as the motorcade slowly passed, and Ahmadinejad stood and waved from the sunroof of his SUV.

Ahmadinejad will tour the Shi’ite Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut and is expected to visit southern Lebanon. He is also due to give a speech in Bint Jbail, the site of one of the most well-known battles waged between Israel and Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War.

Israeli defense officials said they believe Ahmadinejad will use his visit to Lebanon to demonstrate support for Hezbollah and hurl insults at Israel, but that the trip is not intended to ignite another round of violence in the region.

In the build-up to Ahmadinejad’s arrival, signs and banners both for and against the visit have been hoisted across the country. Pictures of Ahmadinejad with a large X superimposed over his face can be seen in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, indicating he is not welcome there. In Shi’ite-dominated areas, however, photos of the Iranian president as well as spiritual leaders in Tehran have been disseminated. The roadways connecting Beirut’s international airport with the city center, and major highways in the south, have been adorned with Iranian flags.

Samir Geagea, a prominent Christian political leader known for his anti-Hezbollah stance, said Ahmadinejad would be welcome in Lebanon if he came as the president of Iran, and not as the president of parts of Lebanon.

During Ahmadinejad’s visit, Lebanese authorities are banning the screening of a documentary produced by an Iranian filmmaker that chronicles Iran’s opposition movement.

The tension surrounding the visit is compounded by concerns about the ramifications of the release of the final report to be issued by the UN-appointed tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the slain leader’s son, made a lightning trip to Cairo on Monday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In light of the hostile relations between Tehran and Cairo, the move was seen as part of Hariri’s effort to challenge Iran and Hezbollah.

After the Hariri-Mubarak talks, a spokesperson for the Egyptian leader said Cairo supports the tribunal investigating the assassination.