BEIRUT – Under direct American orders, and contrary to what has been the norm in successive governments since 2000, Nawaf Salam’s government approved its ministerial statement without the main clause related to the right of the Lebanese to resist the Israeli occupation, replacing it with “Lebanon’s right to self-defense in accordance with the United Nations Charter.”

The statement limited Lebanon’s right to self-defense only “in the event of any aggression in accordance with the UN Charter,” stressing “the state’s right to monopolize the carrying of weapons.”

The statement called for “a state that has the decision of war and peace, whose army has a defensive combat doctrine that fights any war in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.”

It added that the government’s first task is “to reform the state and fortify its sovereignty after the state had been plagued in the past decades by numerous flaws that had confounded its effectiveness, reduced its influence, and diminished its prestige.”

The decision was officially made to restrict the resistance and accuse it of being the only “blemish” that “diminished Lebanon’s influence and diminished its prestige”. It did not refer to corrupt boys in the US embassy in Beirut who smuggled the deposits of the Central Bank of Lebanon and its citizens abroad and spoiled the entire official institution.

What prestige are these people talking about? Would any sane person believe that the Zionist-American project allows a country in West Asia to have “prestige”? Does “diplomacy” work in liberating the occupied territories? If Washington was keen on the “prestige” of any army in the region, why has it destroyed the former Syrian Arab Army?

In parallel, the presidency announced the extension of the suspension of flights between Lebanon and Iran, and “the necessary and strict instructions were given to the military and security services not to be lenient or allow the airport road to be closed.”

An informed source confirmed to Tehran Times that there is a tendency to follow the same policy regarding flights between Lebanon and Iraq, especially before the funeral of Martyr Sayyed Nasrallah in a bid to obstruct the arrival of ordinary and official attendees under an idiot pretext that they “will transfer money to Hezbollah.”

The informed source revealed that the US embassy in Beirut threatened President Aoun and Prime Minister Salam that if they did not comply with these orders, severe sanctions would be imposed on them.
Meanwhile, Ismail Baqaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, stated that the talks held with the Lebanese Foreign Ministry were “positive,” as it was emphasized that “the two countries, which have a history of relations and common interests, must make the best decision in this regard, and not allow third parties who do not seek the good and interest of either of the two peoples or the entire region to influence bilateral relations.”
 
On April 16, 1945, after the defeat of the French mandate on November 22, 1943 thanks to the armed resistance led by Sayyed Abdul Hussein Sharaf al-Din, Tehran rushed to open an embassy in Beirut. On February 23, 1946, Lebanon opened its embassy in Tehran. 

The close relationship at that time was due to a personal friendship between President Camille Chamoun and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Chamoun was hostile to Arab unity (Syrian-Egyptian unity). He was pro-Western and supported the Baghdad Pact.

In the late fifties, the Shah supplied Chamoun with weapons to suppress the 1958 revolution led by Kamal Jumblatt (Walid Jumblatt’s father), head of the Progressive Socialist Party, also on orders from the US Marines that occupied the Lebanese coast under the pretext of “protecting Lebanese legitimacy” from the danger of the Soviet communist tide allied with Arab nationalism. 

Lebanon turned to an arena of competition between the Shah and Gamal Abdel Nasser, between a Persian nationalism allied with America and an Arab nationalism hostile to it.

At that time, the Egyptian leader succeeded in bringing Lebanon into his Nasserite orbit. Hence, Iran’s influence receded and it no longer had any influence but an intelligence role for SAVAK, which pursued the Shah’s opponents in Lebanon.

The latter accused President Fouad Chehab (who proceeded Chamoun) of protecting them and facilitating their movement, which led to the severing of diplomatic relations for the first time in the history of the two countries.

After he was elected president of the Republic in 1970, Suleiman Franjieh (the great-grandfather of Marada Movement leader Tony Franjieh – an ally of Hezbollah) settled the diplomatic crisis.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini supported the launch of Hezbollah resistance against Israel and America.

During the Israeli invasion in 1982, Iran sent 1,800 volunteers from the Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon through its ally Syria, who set up camps to recruit volunteers – Lebanese and non-Lebanese – to fight Israel.

This helped the first cells that established Hezbollah to:

1) Foil the ominous normalization plot, aka the “May 17 Agreement”;

2) Blow up the spy hub, aka the US Embassy in Beirut (April 17, 1983);

3) Blow up a building that housed soldiers from the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) killing 241 Americans and 58 French soldiers (October 23, 1983);

4) Overthrow Israel’s ally Bashir Gemayel before he was assassinated by (Christian) Martyr Habib Al-Shartouni.

Following Hezbollah’s operation against MNF, the government of Shafiq Al-Wazzan gave Iran only 3 days to withdraw its volunteers, threatening to sever diplomatic relations. His government however quickly fell.

After the formation of the government of Rashid Karami, who was assassinated by Samir Geagea, relations between the two countries were resumed. Damascus was the middleman between Tehran and Beirut. Syria received Iranian aid in the form of oil and weapons in exchange for facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah. 

Since April 2005, following the withdrawal of the (former) Syrian army from Lebanon and the decline of the Syrian role in Lebanon, the so-called “Iranian occupation” has become the melody of the US embassy’s clowns and its beggars.

Their war against Iran is a war on the very ideology of resistance. If Iran were today in the pro-US-Israeli axis, Chelo Kebab would have become their main dish and Sohan would have become their favorite daily dessert.