Iranian President Muhammad Khatami warned on Wednesday of Israeli efforts to use the Lebanese crisis to take over the whole Middle East region, reports Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
“We believe not only Lebanon, but the entire Middle East region, has entered a sensitive and decisive moment,” he said during his meeting with Vice President of Lebanon’s Higher Shi’a Council, ‘Abd Al-Amir Qabalan.
Qabalan, on his part, said the enemies of the country are trying to achieve their objectives by creating divisions among the Lebanese and undermining resistance.
Khatami described Lebanon a “gateway through which the Zionists and certain superpowers want to control the entire Middle East,” according to a press release from the Presidential Office. “They must not be allowed to achieve their objectives through stoking up internal differences and weakening the resistance,” the Iranian president said, stressing the need for vigilance among Muslims against “plots hatched by the enemies to inflict blows on the entire region, especially Lebanon and Syria.”
Referring to the terror group Hizbullah, which is backed by his regime, Khatami described the Lebanese resistance as a “source of pride for the Islamic and Arab world.” Khatami also hailed Druze leader Walid Jumblatt’s position regarding the need for the Lebanese resistance (Hizbullah) to maintain their arms as well as his role in consolidating unity in the country and forging better ties with Syria.