[ad_1]
Lebanon is within the throes of the worst financial disaster in its trendy historical past, rooted in a long time of corruption and mismanagement by the small nation’s ruling class. The disaster erupted in October 2019 and has plunged three quarters of Lebanon’s 6 million folks, together with 1 million Syrian refugees, into poverty.
Amirabdollahian go to to the border village of Maroun al-Ras got here three weeks after Israel launched rare strikes into southern Lebanon, hours after militants fired practically three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two folks and inflicting some property injury. The Israeli navy stated on the time that it focused installations of the Palestinian militant Hamas group in southern Lebanon.
Iran is a most important Hezbollah backer and has equipped the militant group over the previous a long time with weapons and funds.
“We’re right here in the present day … to declare once more with a loud voice that we help the resistance in Lebanon towards the Zionist entity,” Amirabdollahian instructed a gathering that included a number of Hezbollah legislators.
The Iranian diplomat’s go to to Lebanon is the primary since Iran and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement in China final month to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.
In neighboring Syria, a pro-government newspaper reported that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will start a two-day go to to Damascus subsequent Wednesday, the primary by an Iranian president to the Syrian capital since 2010.
Iran has additionally been a most important backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad because the rebellion that changed into battle started in Syria in March 2011, killing practically half 1,000,000 folks. Tehran has despatched Iran-backed fighters from across the Center East to combat alongside Assad’s forces, serving to tip the steadiness of energy in his favor.
The professional-government Al-Watan stated Raisi would meet with Assad to spice up “strategic cooperation” between the 2 allies. A number of agreements and memorandums of understanding would even be signed through the go to.
Some oil-rich Arab international locations, together with Saudi Arabia, have been slowly reconciling with Assad after supporting opposition fighters for years.
Related Press author Albert Aji in Beirut contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
