Before Lebanon’s parliamentary elections were over, the world was already turning its attention from Beirut to Tehran, where the presidential campaign was wrapping up. And as the unexpected post-election drama unfolded, ripples from Tehran spread across the globe, raising new questions about that country’s relations with the rest of the world, including Lebanon.
In a crackdown that echoed Pinochet and Tiananmen, the Iranian government went after those who had fomented or participated in the protests that followed what many have denounced as rigged elections. It looked like the handiwork of Iran’s previous regime led by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and echoed an age when battles between leftist and the state spilled out into the streets. The differing reactions drove a wedge between Iran’s close allies and its developing relationships, such as the United States, which sought to engage Tehran on its nuclear program.
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah – which receives financial and military aid from Iran – swiftly congratulated both President Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Khamenei, just as protests were getting underway. Some left-leaning Lebanese denounced the crackdown, but there was not as much of a vocal reaction here as there was in the rest of the world.
What the Lebanese reaction to the protests did show is that the Lebanese Left – the old guard of not only anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, anti-US activists, but also pro-worker and pro-women’s rights activists – is essentially dormant, having shifted from its old issues to the broader anti-Zionist push of Hezbollah and its allies.
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