Iran and Lebanon are on good, indeed excellent, terms. But it's hard to say what the people of these two nations think about each other, unlike their politicians. It's difficult for Iranians to get visas to visit Lebanon and they also find it difficult to distinguish between Hizbollah and the other Lebanese, so they don't really know what's going on in Lebanon. The Lebanese might be interested to know that, in Iran, there is a group called ‘Hizbollah' who beat up people who don't stick to the rules and claim to be reformers. The members of this pressure group, who operate in plainclothes, are supervised by the Supreme Leader and Basij, a private militia. The name of this pressure group is so similar to that of a party in Lebanon that Iranians suspect that there's not much difference between them. Meanwhile, the Lebanese picture Iran as a country with a brutal regime that persecutes any citizen who seeks democracy and arrests intellectuals and journalists. But the Lebanese do differentiate between the people and the government of Iran. However, the situation is very different in Iran, where, despite all the regime's efforts to portray Hizbollah as a humane movement, supported by the whole nation in defending Lebanon against Israel, few people have given this Lebanese group their blessing. When you talk to any ordinary Iranian citizen in Tehran, queueing up for his groceries, he'll curse Hizbollah and Hamas for accepting Iranian money, when many poor Iranians cannot afford to buy beef and chicken for their children, even once a month. Iranians believe that the nation's wealth and resources are all going to Hizbollah and Hamas, in order to support the regime. Whenever the Iranian news channels broadcast something about Hamas or Hizbollah, the Iranian people curse! Iranians are unhappy about having to pay for the reconstruction of Lebanon, with all due respect to the people who suffered and lost their lives in the summer of 2006. In 2008, an official accidentally told Mardom Salari newspaper that Tehran municipality donated $30 million for reconstruction in southern Lebanon, and the mayor of Tehran was asked why he let this happen. The current Lebanese ambassador in Tehran got involved and offered to return the money if the people of Tehran were unhappy. A few weeks ago, Iranians in Iran watched their TVs in amazement as their President Ahmadinejad got a unique welcome in Beirut. They wondered how many more million dollars had been paid to Hizbollah to orchestrate the wonderful welcome. After the eight-year war against Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein, the cities of Ahvaz, Khoram Shahr and Abdan in southern Iran are still in runs. There's no money available to reconstruct them, although, thanks to the generosity of the Iranian regime, southern Lebanon has miraculously risen from the ashes! While Iran's rural children have to study in the street or under tents, Iran has built 14 schools in Lebanon, replacing schools that were destroyed by Israel. Iranians would be very angry if they knew that there are families in southern Lebanon receiving $700 per month in aid, having lost a breadwinner during the 33- day war with Israel. Do the Lebanese know that the Iranian media spotted Hizbollah fighters in the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran, during the post-election street violence? Iranians are Muslim and mostly Shi'ite, but are not as religious as the regime. Like ordinary Lebanese, they want to live in peace with everyone – even Israel. The last thing Iranians like to be called is Arabs, and they don't like to be ruled by Arabs. This Muslim nation, Iran, is very proud of its heritage, while Islam is the people's religion, not their identity. A video of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's controversial lecture about Iranian civilisation is now available on YouTube. Many Iranians have watched it. Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, stresses that Iran is an Islamic civilisation. Perhaps he needs a reason to explain his closeness to Iran, but perhaps the Iranian leaders are not impressed. Iranian culture and Islamic culture have lived together for thousands of years and it's hard to separate them from each other, but Iranians don't like Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khameni to be referred to as Arab rulers. Whatever Nasrallah is saying these days to explain his very different kind of relationship with the government of Iran, the Iranians hate him – and not just their own ruler! This article has been syndicated from Al-Hayat newspaper.
