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“We are here in Beirut today to loudly proclaim that the peoples, States and Islamic governments can no longer tolerate the ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian population,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday evening, solemnly and boldly declared. In addition, he further stated without hesitation that “continuing these war crimes against Palestine will generate responses from other axes.” It is evident that these “other axes” the Iranian Minister mentioned primarily refer to the Southern Lebanon front, where Hezbollah serves as a prominent outpost for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard along the border with Israel and the Mediterranean coastline.
A fundamental inquiry must be raised in this regard: who has bestowed upon the Tehran Foreign Minister the privilege of making such extensive war-related commitments on behalf of the Lebanese populace? What is the basis on which he asserts the authority to determine the fate of Lebanon and declare his presence in Beirut to “proclaim loudly,” as he puts it, that if the escalation in Gaza persists, the Southern front will be activated, given that his reference was undoubtedly thinly disguised and directed towards Lebanon?
Certainly, Abdollahian made some clarifications on Friday morning when he stated, as he left the Grand Serail, that the purpose of his visit was to “preserve peace in Lebanon.” Does this seem like double-talk? It proves challenging to unravel the ambiguity in this matter and elucidate Tehran’s genuine position. Nevertheless, the statements made by the Iranian Minister at the airport leave little room for doubt; the Islamic Republic unmistakably portrays itself as the omnipotent godfather of “peoples, States and Islamic governments.”
The ongoing conflict in Gaza serves as a stark illustration of the unwavering determination of Iranian leaders to combat Israel to the last Palestinian while maintaining indirect Iranian involvement, primarily to enhance their geostrategic position and role in the regional arena. Their motive is transparent yet unquestionably cynical: to remind international decision-makers of their presence without generating any concern for Iran. This is achieved at the expense of the 1,500 Hamas combatants who infiltrated Israeli territory, abandoning their lives just to please Tehran’s ideologists, as well as the destruction of entire neighborhoods in Gaza, alongside the multitude of hardships endured by the Palestinian population.
In the context of the Iranian geostrategic offensive, which was initiated through proxy on October 7, it would be pertinent to remind the mullah regime of a crucial truth that cannot be overlooked: for the past 50 years, the Lebanese populace has been subjected to a significant burden as a result of the Palestinian cause. Although initially categorized by the Arab League as a “supporting country,” distinct from the “confronting countries” (Egypt, Syria and Jordan), Lebanon emerged as the sole country to bear the brunt of the Israeli-Arab conflict, at the expense of its population’s welfare. We therefore loudly and clearly underscore that the Lebanese people are no longer willing or able to endure further hardships or make additional sacrifices to serve further strategic interests that are entirely stranger to them. The top priority now, more than ever, is the re-foundation of the Lebanese State with the active participation of all the country’s socio-communal components.
