Israelis Cautious ahead of Ahmadinejad Border Tour

Israelis were on Thursday warily watching their northern border for a rare opportunity to see up-close the arch-enemy of the Jewish state, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president, who is on a two-day trip to Lebanon, was expected to conduct a controversial tour of the southern border region during the afternoon for a visit which has been slammed by the United States and Israel as "provocative."

The border region, a Hizbullah stronghold, is often seen as the frontline in a proxy war between Israel and Iran.

While Israel's leadership slammed the visit as a provocation, for many it presents a chance to glimpse the Iranian leader, a man deeply reviled for his denials of the Nazi Holocaust and predictions of the Jewish state's demise

"It is a provocative and destabilizing visit," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. "It appears his intentions are blatantly hostile and he is coming to play with fire."

Ahmadinejad's visit was "like a landlord visiting his domain," he said, while other officials said the move signified the final transformation of Israel's northern neighbor into an "Iranian client state."

Thursday's tour will see the sharp-tongued Iranian leader coming the closest he has ever been to the Jewish state, standing just four kilometers (two miles) from the border as he tours villages destroyed during the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.

He is set to stop in Bint Jbeil, a Hizbullah bastion devastated during the war, and in Qana, targeted in 1996 and again in 2006 by deadly Israeli air strikes.(AFP)