US warns Lebanon over Ahmadinejad visit

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Agencies)
Says Ahmadinejad trip to Lebanon not a good idea

The United States has raised concerns about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scheduled visit to Lebanon next week.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that Iran is undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty through its association with groups like Hezbollah.

He said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has raised the issue with the Lebanese president.

But Crowley said it’s up to the Lebanese government if Ahmadinejad makes the trip.

Iran is a key supporter of Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah, believed to funnel it with weapons and millions of dollars in funding, though Tehran denies arming the Shiite group.

Hezbollah, also closely allied to Syria, boasts a heavy arsenal of rockets capable of reaching deep inside Israel.

Ahmadinejad’s visit, scheduled on Oct. 13-14, is his first to Lebanon as president and comes at a time of greater tension in Beirut in the run up to indictments expected to be issued against Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of statesman Rafik al-Hariri.

Lebanon’s largest parliamentary bloc, the Western-backed “March 14” coalition, voiced concern last week about the visit, saying Ahmedinejad regards Lebanon as “an Iranian base on the Mediterranean.”

Sunni Arab countries are concerned about Shiite Iran’s rising influence in the region, through its proxies of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Sunni Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanese political sources have said they expect Ahmadinejad to meet Hezbollah politicians and visit Bint Jbeil, a bastion of Hezbollah and a border village that was heavily bombed during the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Iran is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the West over its controversial nuclear program that has sparked rumors of planned Israeli or U.S. military strikes to deter it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

U.S. commanders have warned that military strikes against Iran could spark retaliatory action by Tehran and its allies like Hezbollah and Hamas that could destabilize the region.