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Vol. 10, No. 9 24 October 2010
Ahmadinejad in Lebanon
Shimon Shapira
- Iranian President Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon constitutes an additional stage in the process of the Lebanese state's collapse. From now on, Hizbullah supporters will find it difficult to argue that theirs is a national Lebanese party operating in the Lebanese reality on behalf of Lebanese objectives.
- Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon not as the head of a friendly country who wants to promote good relations with a sovereign state, but as the supreme commander who came to review his soldiers at the front against Israel, and as an investor who was coming to check on his investments.
- As opposed to the Sunni axis headed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt that is trying to protect the Sunnis in Lebanon, a radical Shi'ite axis headed by Iran has taken shape that includes Syria, the new Iraq, and the new Lebanon (Hizbullastan).
- The feeling in Tehran is that the more Hizbullah is strengthened, the more the motivation of the United States and the West to invest in Lebanon will decline, and the country will fall like a ripe fruit.
- In contrast with the display of force by the Iranian president in Lebanon, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah cut a sorry figure, orating from his bunker without the courage to stand at Ahmadinejad's side. The only place where Nasrallah feels secure is at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.
