Israel Matzav

Israel warns Lebanon on Ahmadinejad visit

Through diplomatic channels, Israel has warned Lebanon not to allow Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad to visit the border area between Israel and Lebanon next week.

Through United Nations, U.S. and French mediators, Israel has urged the Lebanese government to prevent Ahmadinejad from visiting the border and engaging in what Jerusalem described as "provocation."

The Iranian leader will visit Lebanon next Wednesday and Thursday, and is slated to visit the southern Lebanese villages of Bint Jbeil and Maroun al-Ras, each within a few kilometers of Israeli soil. The London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported that Ahmadinejad is interested in reaching the border fence to hurl stones at Israeli soldiers on the other side.

A top-ranking Israeli official said the Foreign Ministry and security services are conducting security evaluations of Ahmadinejad's visit, and that Israel is engaged in military, diplomatic and public-relations preparations in the days preceding it.

Over the past week, Israel has sent messages to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Suleiman through UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.S. and French governments. Last week, National Security Council head Uzi Arad met in Paris with his French counterpart Jean-David Levitte and asked him to transfer messages to the Lebanese government stating that Jerusalem views Ahmadinejad's visit close to Israel's border as a provocative measure that could undermine regional stability and should therefore be canceled. A similar message was delivered to U.S. officials.

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Sources in Jerusalem added that even before Israel asked Lebanon to reconsider Ahmadinejad's stop in the country's south, senior U.S. and French officials had already done the same independently. American officials reportedly did so immediately following the Iranian president's speech at the UN General Assembly last month blaming the U.S. government for the September 11 attacks.

Some Lebanese are also calling Ahmadinejad's visit a 'provocation.'

"The message is that Iran is at the border with Israel," Fares Souaid, coordinator of the March 14 alliance, said.

"Ahmadinejad through this visit is saying that Beirut is under Iranian influence and that Lebanon is an Iranian base on the Mediterranean," said Mr Souaid, whose coalition is led by the Western-backed Prime Minister.

"His visit to the south would be a provocation, he doesn't need to go there."

Mr Souaid also pointed out that Mr Ahmadinejad was coming to Beirut at a time when the West is bidding to rescue fledgling, US-backed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The Iranian president is here to say that Lebanon is a land of resistance and to reaffirm his project of a continuous war with Israel," he said.

Lebanon has to be made to choose a side. Either they are with the 'moderates' who are generally considered pro-Western, or they are with Iran and Syria. With Hezbullah in the government, that's a difficult choice for Lebanon to make. It's too bad the Obama administration mortgaged Lebanon's sovereignty to Obama's feckless Middle East policies.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:34 PM