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.
