Ahmadinejad Shields Hezbollah

Ryan Mauro
frontpagemag.com
18 October '10

Last week, Iranian President Ahmadinejad took a two-day trip to Lebanon where he basked in the glory heaped upon him by hordes of Hezbollah supporters. Their turn-out is to be expected. Hezbollah is going to be indicted by the U.N. Special Tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, and the Iranian despot’s visit is part of an overall campaign to rescue the terrorist group.

“Lebanon is an example…for the unwavering resistance to the world’s tyrants and a university for jihad,” Ahmadinejad proclaimed in Lebanon. He also made it clear that Iran’s ambitions aren’t limited to the Middle East, saying that “Our world today stands on the verge of change, a change that is starting from our region.”

Ahmadinejad’s visit is just one part of an overall strategy with Syria and Hezbollah to shield the terrorist group from prosecution. The U.N. Special Tribunal is reportedly planning on indicting three to five members of Hezbollah, followed by a second round of indictments of about 20 of the group’s officials. The evidence appears solid, as the cousin of Imad Mugniyeh is thought to have been the brains behind the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. The U.N. has identified a total of 28 phones used by those involved in the plot, all of which belonged to members of Hezbollah. Syria may also have been involved, as the first U.N. report in 2005 suggested, but the tribunal has since backed off of making such allegations.

When news of these pending indictments first broke, elements of the Lebanese Army provoked a border clash with Israeli forces. A pro-Hezbollah journalist who was suspiciously present during the clash was killed during the fighting, strongly indicating that the terrorist group planned the incident. This clash may have been a way of stirring up support for Hezbollah in order to frighten the Lebanese government into inaction against them. This move, along with Ahmadinejad’s trip, the first by an Iranian president in seven years, show that Hezbollah and its state sponsors are seriously concerned about the affect indictments from the tribunal may have.

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