IRAN: Watching Lebanon from Tehran
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Some Lebanese and U.S. officials blamed Iran, the main patron and backer of the Shiite militia Hezbollah for the current unrest in Lebanon.
Indeed, Iranians are closely watching events unfolding in Lebanon and rooting for their allies.
But though Hezbollah might have discreetly sought its backers’ OK before taking over West Beirut, the move came as a shock to most Iranians. One team of reporters from Iran’s official state-controlled broadcaster only managed to make it across the Syrian border and into the country on Friday night, well after the takeover.
In Tehran on Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini called for ‘national unity’ in Lebanon and blamed the troubles there on Israel and the U.S. ‘We have always warned that the US and Zionist regime and their media are creating the crisis in Lebanon,’ he told reporters.
Iran’s daily Kayhan, a pro-government newspaper, called Hezbollah’s move a ‘clever act’ that ‘thwarted a U.S. conspiracy.’ It gave a version of events far different to that perceived by many Lebanese:
These clashes started from the time that Fouad Siniora’s government, with the provocation of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, decided to prohibit Hezbollah communication network and to sack the security chief of Beirut international airport who was one of the members of Hezbollah movement ... After some days of clashes between the anti-government and pro-government forces in Lebanon, the Lebanese people celebrated victory....The Lebanese people congratulated each other for this triumph by giving cookies and holding Hezbollah and Lebanon flags.
The newspaper also praised Hezbollah for refraining from exacting revenge on the fighters it had captured. ‘During the previous years, in the middle of civil wars and under the same conditions, the warring forces wouldn’t pity the other side under any circumstances,’ it said.
—Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Borzou Daragahi in Beirut