Rapturous welcome for Ahmadinejad in Lebanon

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived to a rapturous welcome in Beirut yesterday for a contentious visit that takes him to the border of arch-foe Israel and is seen as a boost for key ally Hezbollah.
The hardline leader was greeted by tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters as his convoy made its way from the airport toward the presidential palace under a shower of rice, sweets and rose petals.
"The enemies of Lebanon and Iran are terrified when they see the two nations standing alongside one another," Ahmadinejad told parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who greeted him at the airport, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
"Today is a new day for us and I am proud to be in Lebanon," he added.
Ahmadinejad waved and smiled to the men, women and children who lined the roads outside the airport screaming "Khosh amadi" (welcome in Farsi) and "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) as they waved Iranian flags.
But although he is being received with open arms by Hezbollah and its allies, the two-day official trip has sparked criticism among Lebanon's pro-Western parliamentary majority who see it as a bid to portray the country as "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean."
The United States and Israel, which have sought to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme, have also expressed concern.
Ahmadinejad's first visit since his election in 2005 will highlight the clout Iran wields in Lebanon through Hezbollah, considered Tehran's proxy and by far the most powerful military and political force in the small Mediterranean country.

The president's trip also comes at a sensitive time in politically turbulent Lebanon.
Hezbollah is locked in a standoff with Prime Minister Saad Hariri over unconfirmed reports that a UN-backed tribunal is set to indict members of the militant group over the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Tensions over the tribunal have grown steadily in recent weeks, raising fears of renewed sectarian violence and the collapse of Lebanon's hard-fought national unity government.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to meet with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Berri as well as a number of politicians.
He will also meet Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding since his party's devastating 2006 war with Israel.
Nasrallah is expected to appear alongside Ahmadinejad at a rally in Beirut later Wednesday but it is not known whether he will do so in person or via video link.
The highlight of the trip, however, comes on Thursday when Ahmadinejad will be just a few kilometres (miles) away from the Israeli border as he tours southern Lebanese villages destroyed during the 2006 conflict.
He is set to stop in Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah bastion devastated during the war, and in Qana, targeted in 1996 and again in 2006 by deadly Israeli air strikes.
Iran has been a major donor in the reconstruction of southern Lebanon following the month-long 2006 war, and Ahmadinejad is set to receive a hero's welcome in the area.
Ahmadinejad is accompanied by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and a delegation of business leaders. A number of agreements in the energy and water sectors are to be signed.
Official banquets organised in his honour will not include Western ambassadors to avoid any walkouts should Ahmadinejad launch one of his trademark tirades against Israel.
The Iranian leader has sparked international outrage by repeatedly casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust and predicting the destruction of Israel.