Iran’s aim to reinforce presence in Lebanon will prove counterproductive

Political analysts agreed that the visit of the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Lebanon aimed to convey a message to the West that Iran carries political weight in Lebanon.

“The Iranians are under pressure... and they want to make sure that their preeminence in Lebanon through Hezbollah will continue,” Hilal Kashan, chair of the Political Studies Department at the American University of Beirut, told Xinhua.

Khashan said that Zarif is in Beirut to make sure that Iran will continue to have the upper hand in Lebanon through Hezbollah.

“This is why the Iranians are proposing to provide arms to Lebanon and try to resolve the electricity problem in the country,” he said.

Khashan added that Tehran is also aware that the Israeli military exercises near the borders with Lebanon are meant to send a clear message to Iran that Israel will not allow it to prevail in Syria and Lebanon.

“I do not see a war coming in the foreseeable future but the Israelis want to exert pressure on Iran and they really want the government in Tehran to have a severe domestic crisis,” Khashan said.

Rajeh Khoury, political commentator and columnist, told Xinhua that the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Lebanon aims to convey a message to the west that Iranians have the power to extend from Iran to Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.

“Iranians want to prove that they have a political weight in the Lebanon since Hezbollah was capable of obtaining a good representation in the new government,” Khoury said.

According to Khoury, this visit came at a very hard time for Iran as a result of the sanctions imposed by the US.

Khoury added that Iranian ties with Europe are not very favorable as well since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday attacked Europe by saying that it “cannot be trusted,” a week after the EU launched a trade mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Tehran.

“There’s talk of the Europeans and their proposals. My advice is that they shouldn’t be trusted, just like the Americans,” Khamenei said.

Analysts interviewed by Xinhua agreed as well that Lebanon cannot accept Iran’s help because this would impact the country’s ties with the US and the West in general.

“It is true that Iran controls Lebanon through Hezbollah but the Lebanese army has very strong ties with the US administration and it will never accept Iranian weapons,” Khashan said.

He added that the two main providers of military hardware to the Lebanese army are the US and Britain. Iranian weapons do not fit the requirements of the Lebanese military.

“If the Lebanese government receives any Iranian equipment, the US will never provide again weapons to the Lebanese army,” he said.

The US is the biggest provider of military aid to Lebanon, as the Lebanese army has received a total of $1.5 billion in military aid since the 2006 war with Israel.

Khashan added that Zarif’s visit to Lebanon will not make any difference.

“He came to Beirut with an agenda that does not differ from previous agendas which did not prevail in the past. I do not see why his current visit to Beirut, which is one of the many visits will make a difference,” he said.

Khoury said that Zarif’s visit won’t benefit Lebanon because the country is tied economically to the Western financial system.

“Lebanon cannot respond positively to Iran’s offers for electricity or any other field,” he said.

Khoury said that Lebanon is keen on preserving good ties with Iran, yet it cannot deepen relations with this country because any improvement in bilateral relations is bad for Lebanon’s interests with the Americans and Europeans.

The author is a writer with the Xinhua News Agency. opinion@ globaltimes.com.cn