\u201cA warlord allied to Saddam Hussein and the Zionist enemy\u201d. \u201cA man of peace who can save Lebanon from great dangers ahead.\u201d
\nAre we talking of the same man? Yes, we are. The man is retried general Michel Aoun who has been sworn in as the new President of Lebanon. The comments on him come from the media of the Islamic Republic in Iran and highlight the difference that the passage of decades could make in the assessment of friend and foe by an opportunist regional power.
\nThe first comment appeared in the daily Resalat (Mission) in October 1983 shortly after the 8th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, a Lebanese Christian unit led by Aoun, fought Shi\u2019ite Palestinian and Druze militias allied to Syria and Iran in Souk al-Gharb, slaughtering large numbers.
\n\u201cThe Maronite forces were led by a man who has sold Lebanon to the enemy,\u201d the paper claimed.
\nThe second comment came from the daily Etemad (Confidence) on November 1 as part of an analysis that saw Aoun\u2019s presidency as \u201ca major setback for the Zionist enemy.\u201d
\nHowever, Aoun, or \u201cGeneral\u201d as his supporters like to call him for short, only really caught the attention of the Iranian mullahs in 1988 when he set himself up as \u201cPrime Minister\u201d in East Beirut, claiming supreme authority over Lebanon.
\nThe Tehran media saw Aoun\u2019s bid for power as a plot by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to score a point in the region to partly cover the humiliating end of his eight-year war with Iran in August 1988.
\nHaving created a branch of the so-called Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982-83, Iran needed time to train this militia for use as a means of exerting pressure on communities hostile to the Islamic Republic. Tehran saw Aoun as a pawn jointly advanced by Israel and Saddam Hussein to counter Iran\u2019s plans for the domination of Lebanon with the help of its Syrian allies.
\n\u201cIt is urgent that Iran prevent the formation of a new counter-revolutionary base against it in Lebanon,\u201d the daily Jumhuri Islami commented in July 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
\nBelieving that Syria alone wouldn\u2019t be able to keep Lebanon on the side, Tehran moved to create a bloc of its own allies by inviting the leaders of Hezbollah Sobhi al-Tufayli and the head of the rival Amal Movement Nabih Berri to Tehran for unity talks. To keep Syria on board, Tehran also divided the Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa for two days of negotiations presided over by FM Al-Akbar Velayati.
\nIran\u2019s agenda was clearly spelled out by Ali Khamenei who had taken over as \u201cSupreme Guide\u201d when he received the Lebanese Shi\u2019ite leaders and the Syrian diplomat.
\n\u201cFighting the Maronites in Lebanon is the same as fighting Israel,\u201d Khamenei told the meeting.\u201d
\nKhamenei described the Lebanese political system as \u201cone of the most regressive in the world\u201d and compared it with Apartheid in South Africa.
\n\u201cIn Lebanon, a Maronite minority unjustly rules a majority, which is twice or three times larger, and its rule is based on betrayal of Lebanon\u2019s territorial integrity and independence in the service of Zionist goals and Zionist regime,\u201d Khamenei told the group.
\nReflecting Khamenei\u2019s instructions, Amal and Hezbollah, backed by Syria, issued a communique pledging to fight to end what they described as \u201cZionist occupation\u201d. They specifically promised to fight \u201cthe Michel Aoun clan which is backed by Zionists and the criminal Iraqi regime.\u201d
\n\u201cA new vision of Lebanon\u2019s future is born in Tehran \u201dJumhuri Islami commented at the time. \u201cIn this vision, Lebanon will have a new political system based on justice and honorable coexistence among all communities, enabling Lebanon to play its full part in the struggle against the Israeli usurper.\u201d
\nAoun, however, continued to resist Syrian occupation and Iran\u2019s attempt at expanding its influence in Lebanon. His end draw close when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, thus turning the Western powers, notably the United Sates, against him. An alliance that included the US, Syria and Iran was hard to resist for Aoun and his isolated band of devotees in their East Beirut bunkers.
\nEven the Tehran media grudgingly noted that \u201cthe little general\u201d and his men showed \u201cdesperate courage in a battle against forces many times superior.
\nPresident George HW Bush gave the green light to Syrian leader Hafez Al-Assad to finish off Aoun. Thanks to French President Jacques Chirac, a friend of Saddam Hussein, Aoun was escorted safely out of Beirut and into a 15-year exile in France.
\nDuring those years, the Iranian media remembered Aoun only occasionally, gradually softening its tone as the exiled general indicated that his fight had been against Syrian occupation of Lebanon not Iranian influence in Lebanon. By the mid-1990s, Aoun had established reliable links with both Hezbollah and Amal and held meetings with Iranian Ambassador to Paris Ali Ahani.
\nIran has definitely revised its assessment of Aoun.
\nSome commentators now consider him as \u201cour man in Beirut\u201d. The daily Kayhan, believed to reflect Khamenei\u2019s views, headlined Aoun\u2019s election as \u201cHezbollah\u2019s Historic Victory in Lebanon\u201d and ran a photo showing Aoun being received by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his office.
\nThe paper\u2019s top editorial had this to say: \u201cAoun\u2019s election illustrates (the fact) that the Resistance Movement (Muqawamah) led by Nasrallah is the principal force in ending the political deadlock in Lebanon even though the movement has refrained from intervening in domestic political squabbles.\u201d
\nThe daily Etemad, however, cast Aoun as a symbol of democracy in Lebanon. In a column signed by Massoud Idrisi, a former ambassador of Iran to Beirut, the paper claimed: \u201cDemocracy took place in Lebanon, and the figure who was more popular and had more votes has become president.\u201d
\nIt added: \u201cIn Lebanon, the president has an important role in adjusting the country\u2019s foreign affairs.\u201d
\nIdrisi then predicted Aoun would make resolving issues in diplomatic relations with international and regional powers a priority.
\nAccording to Edrisi, France, the United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the countries that Aoun will likely attempt to strengthen relations with. \u201cI think Iranian-Lebanese political ties will be warming further in the coming days. Aoun is a powerful figure, and he can shape a balance regarding the influences of Iran and Saudi Arabia inside Lebanon.\u201d
\nThe daily Watan-Emruz (Homeland Today) speculated that as president Aoun would focus his energies on keeping Lebanon \u201cout of harm\u2019s way\u201d in a regional ablaze with multiple conflicts and tragedies.
\nThe daily Arman (Ideal) noted Aoun\u2019s \u201ccapacity for endurance\u201d but warned that he has \u201ca tough task ahead.\u201d
\n\u201cNothing indicates that the road ahead in Lebanon is going to be smooth.\u201d
\nA similar note of caution came from the official news agency IRNA. It noted that Aoun, aged 81, is the \u201cmost popular Christian figure in Lebanon\u201d and claimed that his election is \u201cwithout a doubt a victory for Hezbollah and the 8 March coalition.\u201d
\nNevertheless, IRNA warned that Aoun\u2019s election isn\u2019t \u201cthe end of political divisions, but the reconfiguration of forces\u201d in Lebanon.
\nIRNA\u2019s cautious tone is in order. In a career spanning three decades, Aoun may have acted as weathervane. But, in the final analysis, he has remained his own man. That is one quality that friend and foe would ignore at their peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA warlord allied to Saddam Hussein and the Zionist enemy\u201d. \u201cA man of peace who can save Lebanon from great dangers ahead.\u201d Are we talking of the same man? Yes, we are. The man is retried general Michel Aoun who has been sworn in as the new President of Lebanon. The comments on him come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":2032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1077,1078,503,12,17,1079,83],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-amal","tag-editors-pick","tag-hezbollah","tag-iran","tag-lebanon","tag-michel-aoun","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2034,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}