Lately, for the first time in the history of Iran-Lebanon relations, the Lebanese government called ‎for judicial review of Iranians who are involved in military or security operations and interfering ‎in government's affairs under the cover of aiding Lebanon's reconstruction effort. ‎

This development was supplemented by the request of a top member of Lebanese parliament ‎‎(Valid Jonbalat) to deport Iran's ambassador from Lebanon which was also followed by protests ‎to Tehran's role in Lebanon's crises organized by the country’s leading political groups. ‎

Living in Beirut and working with universities, media and the middle class, as well as sharing in ‎Lebanese people's security and economic hardships is enough for one to clearly grasp the vast ‎difference between what is published in the Iranian press and what many Lebanese understand as ‎Tehran's role in stirring crises in Lebanon. ‎

It was in response to this reaction by the Lebanese government that Hezbollah felt threatened to ‎its core and took up arms to topple the government. After many years, the prediction of analysts ‎regarding dangers associates with Hezbollah's refusal to relinquish arms has become true. ‎

There was a time when the Secretary General of Hezbollah, responding to the criticism that ‎Hezbollah's "weapons are flowing from Iran," promised the Lebanese people and its political ‎opponents that Hezbollah would use these weapons only for resistance against Israel and to ‎liberate occupied territories. However, at his press conference on May 8, while declaring war ‎against political opponents, he qualified his prior remark by saying that Hezbollah will not harm ‎‎"the people" but will only fight "mercenaries of Israel and America." ‎

It is clear that Hezbollah, in addition to receiving money and weaponry from Iran, has also ‎learned the ideology of the Iranian regime. The discourse of the Secretary-General of Hezbollah ‎shares many literary roots with that of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's Supreme ‎Leader: a discourse in which "the people" means "Supreme Leader's supporters" and "enemy's ‎mercenary" means "political opponent." ‎

Last point is that: ‎

Iran's involvement in Lebanon is not an issue hidden from the eyes of someone like Seyyed ‎Mohammad Khatami [former Iranian president]. I can never forget Mr. Khatami's sadness when ‎Iraq's senior cleric politician Abdolaziz Hakim complained about Iran's involvement in Iraq and ‎the request by a number of Lebanese officials to modify Iran's role in Iraq and Lebanon when I ‎met with him last summer. ‎

Perhaps it is in line with these concerns that Mr. Khatami recently publicly criticized the Islamic ‎Republic's attempts to "export crisis and violence" to its neighbors in the Middle East. ‎