MIDEAST: Iranian Shadow Lengthens over Lebanon

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Roxana Saberi

BEIRUT, Aug 12 2006 (IPS) - While many Lebanese are united in their resentment against Israel for its assault on their country, they are divided in their views of Hezbollah – and of one of its main supporters, Iran.

Tehran says it gives the Lebanese militant group only “spiritual and political” aid – not money, weapons or training. But few Lebanese believe the Islamic Republic is simply sitting on the sidelines – for better or for worse.

Many residents in the Dahiya neighbourhood of southern Beirut say as their anger against Israel has grown, so has their admiration for Hezbollah – and as an extension, Iran.

Israel has been targeting almost daily the mostly Shia Muslim area, which it says is a stronghold of Hezbollah. Evacuees who return to assess the damage done to their homes and businesses say Hezbollah has been protecting them and providing the poor and displaced with food and medical help.

But few here believe Hezbollah could do all this on its own.

Fifty-nine-year-old Yusef Ammar is one of many residents here who believe Iran is helping Hezbollah to help his people.

“We like Iran,” he said. “All the people like Iran. It helps the people here. It helps Hezbollah however it likes. And we like Iran’s president. He’s always speaking the truth.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, echoing the words of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

All over this southern Beirut neighbourhood, posters of Khomeini, as well as Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hang beside those of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Iran helped found Hezbollah in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, but it has denied arming the group or playing a role in its seizure of two Israeli soldiers last month, which led to Israel’s assault on Lebanon.

A Hezbollah member who was guarding the deserted buildings in Dahiya said Iran helps his group, but he refused to say in what ways.

“Just for Iran to be with us, that’s enough for us – financially and spiritually, yes,” said the man, who preferred to remain unidentified. “But there’s no problem if Iran also gives missiles to Hezbollah.”

“Iran helps Hezbollah unconditionally,” he added. “America gives missiles to Israel on the condition that it uses them to kill women and children like this.”

But not everyone in Lebanon speaks glowingly of Iran. Many who blame Hezbollah for sparking the current conflict believe Iran was behind it. They say Tehran is using the conflict here to fight its own war against Israel and the United States.

Forty-eight-year-old Gilbert, who did not want to give his last name, is a Lebanese Christian. “Let Tehran stay on their territories,” he said. “We have to live in peace. More than 30 years of war in Lebanon is enough. This is our country.”

This country of roughly four million people has long been susceptible to foreign interference, with a power-sharing system for 17 Muslim and Christian communities that keeps the government weak and sometimes tempts competing groups to seek help from foreign allies.

The United States, France and other big powers are widely seen as part of this game, along with regional countries such as Syria, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.

While some believe Iran and Syria have greatly influenced Hezbollah’s actions in this conflict, they also say that Israel’s attack on Hezbollah was directed largely at Iran. They also point out that Washington has seen Israel’s offensive as an opportunity to destroy Hezbollah’s armed power and to reduce its influence in Lebanon and that of its allies in Iran and Syria.

Ibrahim Kanaan, a Christian member of Lebanon’s parliament, believes the Lebanese people and their leaders must unite in order to stop other countries using Lebanon to fight their own battles. He thinks Iran supports Hezbollah in some way and that other countries, like Syria and Iran, want to use the group to further their own interests in the region.

“Lebanon should not be the place where we have to settle these problems,” he said. “The best way to limit regional influence in Lebanon – whether it is Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or whomever – is to have a national agenda, a national view.”