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Why Iran's Soleimani Misreads Lebanon

(Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) Amir Taheri - The uprising in Lebanon has shaken the parallel universe created by Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani's depiction of Lebanon as the bridgehead for the conquest of the Middle East by Khomeinist ideology. The mullahs regard Lebanon as their most successful attempt at empire building, worth every cent of the billions of dollars invested there. Tehran media often boast that Lebanon is the only country where the Islamic Republic controls all levers of power. In Iraq, Iran has to contend with powerful Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties that, while prepared to accommodate Tehran, refuse to act as puppets. In Syria, Tehran has to contend with Bashar al-Assad and remnants of his constituency who regard the Iranian presence as no more than an evil necessity for survival. I think Soleimani is wrong to write-off Lebanon as a nation-state and reinvent it as an Iranian bridgehead. Having known Lebanon for more than half a century, I can tell him that there is such a thing as "Lebanese-ness" that transcends sectarian and political divides. The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.
2019-10-25 00:00:00
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