Syrians welcome the Iranian president to Damascus, taking heart from his show of solidarity and offering reciprocal support, writes Sami Moubayed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived to a warm welcome for his groundbreaking two-day visit to Syria 19 January. Syrians, who originally were opposed to an alliance with the Islamic republic -- especially after Iran went to war against "Arab Iraq" in 1980 -- see Ahmadinejad as a champion of the Arab cause. They began to appreciate the reasoning behind the decision of Syria's late president Hafez Al-Assad to ally himself with the Iranians slowly, seeing that the Islamic Revolution was as committed as they were to the resistance in Palestine and, since the mid-1980s, to the fighters of Hizbullah in South Lebanon. Ahmadinejad has only pleased them by his provocative attitude towards the US since coming to power in 2005. Many see in Ahmadinejad the mirror of Egypt's late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who defied America and Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. While in Damascus, the Iranian president was simultaneously confronting the international community with his decision to resume Iran's nuclear research programme, despite threats from the US. As Ahmadinejad visited the Sitt Zaynab Shrine -- a holy site for Shias in Damascus -- world diplomats were lobbying to transfer the Iranian file to the UN Security Council in order to impose sanctions on Tehran. The move has been blocked, for now, by China and Russia, who believe that sanctions are not an effective way to tame or control the Iranian head of state. On the contrary, many believe that imposing sanctions on Tehran will only make Ahmadinejad more defiant, controversial and unpredictable. For his part, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad invested heavily in Ahmadinejad's visit, using it to market Syria's views on various issues related to Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. President Al-Assad is undoubtedly influenced by his Iranian counterpart, this influence clearly felt in a speech delivered 21 January in which he expressed thundering views on Arab nationalism and Syria's stance vis-à-vis Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. In the course of his visit, Ahmadinejad delivered a lecture at the Assad National Library, followed by meetings with leaders of 10 Palestinian resistance movements based in Syria. Among the leaders he met -- all on the hate list of the United States and Israel -- were Abdullah Ramadan Shallah, head of Islamic Jihad, Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, and the veteran Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmed Jibril. Ahmadinejad also met Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament and a Shia leader in Lebanon, and Hizbullah Secretary- General Hassan Nasrallah. Ahmadinejad has garnered widespread popularity in the Palestinian street since coming to power in 2005, principally for making provocative statement towards and about Israel, claiming that it should be "wiped off the map", or relocated to Europe, adding that the holocaust never happened. During his visit to Damascus Ahmadinejad did not disappoint his Palestinian audience, pledging support for the armed struggle of Shallah, Meshal and Jibril, who in turn expressed support for the Iranian president's nuclear showdown with the United States. US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack immediately replied, saying that neither Syria nor Iran can claim to be champions of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, as Ahmadinejad was making headlines in Syria, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv 19 January, wounding 20 Israelis. Islamic Jihad immediately claimed responsibility, with Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz accusing both Syria and Iran of masterminding the attack, saying "we have definitive proof that the financing of the terror attack came directly from Iran, while the planning was carried out in Syria." Syria denies the allegation, but the fact that Ahmadinejad was in Damascus meeting leaders of Islamic Jihad certainly made it easier for Israel to sustain its argument, and for the United States to believe it. At the end of his two-day visit, Ahmadinejad held a joint-press conference with Al-Assad where he defended Syria against accusations that it was behind the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri. The two leaders condemned "the attempts of certain countries to interfere in the probe of Al-Hariri's assassination" as "an excuse to put further pressure on Damascus." The allegations against Syria, Ahmadinejad said, were "premature accusations" because they were made before the UN completed its investigation. They were "provocative, unjustifiable", and only served "the interests of the enemies of Syria and Lebanon", Ahmadinejad said. Then, articulating a threat to those who wanted to meddle with Syria and Iran, the two leaders warned "of consequences to regional security and peace" if the UN commission did not show impartiality and professionalism in what remains of its six-month mandate. In a gesture of gratitude towards Ahmadinejad's support for Syria's stance on Al-Hariri, Al-Assad defended Iran as having a right to obtain and develop nuclear technology.
