{"id":8209,"date":"2020-08-20T15:33:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T12:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8209"},"modified":"2020-10-08T10:20:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T07:20:27","slug":"panic-in-iran-following-the-explosions-in-beirut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/panic-in-iran-following-the-explosions-in-beirut\/","title":{"rendered":"Panic in Iran Following the Explosions in Beirut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Beirut explosions on August 4, resulting from 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate igniting along with other explosive materials present in far lesser quantity in a warehouse, left more than 200 dead<\/a>, dozens missing and around 300,000  homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosions raised global concern and empathy for Lebanon. Importantly, the explosions resulted in Lebanon shifting from a  failed state to a devastated one devoid of  basic state functions. The country\u2019s president rejected calls for an international investigation. The eastern Mediterranean state has been hostage to its geography and has also faced continuous internal religious discord since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the recently formed coalition government was quick to resign, the president did not.  President Michel Aoun has little political capital and largely depends on  Hezbollah and Iran. The Lebanese people in the aftermath of the explosions have blamed the political elite and Hezbollah for the tragic events, and also accuse them of corruption, inefficiency and polarizing Lebanese society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran and France were extremely anxious following the explosions.  Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for \u2018patience,\u2019 while assuring Lebanon of Tehran\u2019s full support.  Iranian social media was  full of  photos showing  Beirut\u2019s devastated port along with conspiracy theories blaming  the tragic events on Daesh, Israel, and the United States. Iran expressed its solidarity with the Lebanese people by lighting up Azadi Tower in Tehran in the colors of the Lebanese flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut immediately, and offered French support.  Iran\u2019s Kayhan daily newspaper said quite cynically that Macron\u2019s  visit  was an attempt  by France to \u201cweaken the Lebanese resistance.\u201d<\/a>  France hosting  an international donor conference to raise 300 million euros for Lebanon was called a \u201cbluff.\u201d Of course, Tehran did not attend the fund-raising event. The state-run Kayhan\u2019s editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari told AFP<\/a> News, \u201cIn the name of Israel, Macron has sent a message to the Lebanese people that if they continue to resist and support Hezbollah, they will face another catastrophic event of this type.\u201d Iran\u2019s   stuck to its standard line, \u201cIf they are honest, they should lift sanctions against the Lebanese government and people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Michel Aoun was the person  who elevated Hezbollah to a  pre-eminent position in Lebanese politics in 2006 with the signing of an MoU in a bid to strengthen his position. In return for  accepting the rights of Lebanon\u2019s Christians, Hezbollah was catapulted into mainstream Lebanese politics, a disastrous move<\/a>, which would have dire consequences  for the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Hezbollah is not only  a state within  a state  but is also critical for Iran  to implement its stratagem across the globe  and not just in the Middle East. It has a presence in a vast number of countries, with its footprints visible in Malaysia, Venezuela, Denmark, and South Africa.   Beirut port has been used by Hezbollah to  import  dual-use technology, with it eventually transferred to Iran, mostly by air.   Also, Hezbollah operatives  are able to obtain foreign visas  to carry out IRGC assigned tasks. From registering companies to evade sanctions to obtaining foreign passports for Iranian<\/a>, Syrian and Pakistani operatives, the Lebanese militant group is involved in almost everything that is illegal and unprincipled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years, Hezbollah has been facing some serious challenges. Israel has been routinely pre-empting its missile transfers from Iran  via Syrian soil. Hezbollah\u2019s  over-stretched geographical presence in the Middle East, ranging from Lebanon to Syria and Yemen, has become  harder to manage.  The Trump administration\u2019s sanctions on Iran have limited its financial transfers to  the transnational militia. After the Beirut explosions, Hezbollah will need a large sum of money to spend on welfare projects to maintain its support base in the country. On August 14,  Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged the sentiments of the protestors who  hanged his effigy in Beirut\u2019s  Martyrs\u2019 Square before burning it. In addition to #Prepare_the_Gallows<\/a> trending on Twitter, protest banners were emblazoned with insults against him and Hezbollah.  Nasrallah<\/a> termed them as \u201churtful words, the hurtful practices.\u201d He told his supporters<\/a>,  \u201cHold onto that anger. We will need that anger someday, to end once and for all the attempts to drag the country to civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking note of  Hezbollah\u2019s threatening tone and Iran\u2019s aggressively defiant rhetoric, Macron warned  Rouhani in a phone call, asking him to keep Iran  out of Lebanon. Macron<\/a> was quoted as saying that it is essential \u201cfor all the powers concerned … to avoid any outside interference and to support the putting in place of a government that can manage the emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Hale, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, also visited Beirut with a stern warning<\/a> that there will be no further assistance without political reforms, including the restoration of the state\u2019s writ over the country\u2019s ports and borders. It is no secret that  Hezbollah can move  goods and people across Lebanon\u2019s land, air and maritime borders, using its own  networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation into the explosions, which is likely to take some time and be inconclusive,  is being conducted  by the Lebanese authorities along with French and American investigators. It is not possible that  ammonium nitrate was stored at Beirut port without  Hezbollah\u2019s knowledge.   In 2017, Hassan Nasrallah explicitly threatened to destroy Israel by causing a massive explosion in the port of Haifa using ammonia tanks.  He said the explosion would be like a \u201cnuclear\u201d explosion. Wikileaks<\/a> revealed that  Hezbollah had tried in 2009 and later to acquire ammonium nitrate from Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the country\u2019s COVID-19 profile is worsening by the day, Iran is  faced with serious multiple challenges ahead, namely  the upcoming UN- backed tribunal\u2019s verdict<\/a> on  Rafik Hariri\u2019s murder possibly implicating Hezbollah, an extension of the UN arms embargo,  the United States invoking snapback sanctions and  the crisis worsening in Lebanon. With Tel Aviv winning recognition from the UAE, Tehran\u2019s woes are worsening in an unprecedented manner. At such a crucial time, Hezbollah cannot be left devoid of funds and arms. The Beirut explosions are the beginning of a slow but  continuous chain reaction against Iran and Hezbollah. Tehran will have to brace itself for the ramifications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beirut explosions on August 4, resulting from 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate igniting along with other explosive materials present in far lesser quantity in a warehouse, left more than 200 dead, dozens missing and around 300,000 homeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5640,268,3119,2700,5639],"class_list":["post-8209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-beirut","tag-explosion","tag-explosions","tag-massive-explosion","tag-panic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8211,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions\/8211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}