Ahmadinejad Given Hero's Welcome near Israeli Border

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived to a hero's welcome in southern Lebanon on Thursday as he attended a mass rally in Bint Jbeil, a Hizbullah border stronghold flattened in the 2006 war with Israel.

A frenzied crowd of thousands of men, women and children crammed into an outdoor stadium and on rooftops waving Iranian, Lebanese and Hizbullah flags and cheering the hardline president on stage as he again predicted the demise of the Jewish state.

"Bint Jbeil is alive and well," Ahmadinejad told the crowd. "I salute you, people of the resistance.

"You are a solid mountain. We are proud of you and will remain forever by your side."

"Hadn't it been for your resistance and heroic steadfastness, it wouldn't have been known if the border between Lebanon and Israel would be liberated now, you have proved that your jihad is stronger than armadas and tanks," Ahmadinejad told the cheering crowd.

The visit to the south brought the Iranian leader the closest he has ever been to arch-foe Israel and was seen as a joint show of defiance with ally Hizbullah.

"The resistance of the Lebanese people stems from faith and patience, and today the resisting human has turned into an example to be copied, the resistance is the symbol of the victory of the peoples of Lebanon and all the region," said the Iranian leader.

Ahmadinejad reiterated his trademark rhetoric on the inevitable demise of Israel and hailed Lebanon's resistance to the Jewish state.

"The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear," he said to thunderous applause. "The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin."

Ahmadinejad addressed the Lebanese people by saying: "There's no doubt that your enemies fear your unity. Unity is the symbol of endurance, steadfastness and victory."

"We thank God that all the Lebanese had shown a spirit of unity and patience (during the 2006 war), the thing that had allowed them to emerge victorious."

"I thank you in the name of the resisting Iranian people, and I thank all the (Lebanese) people, young or old and to whichever group they belong, and I thank all the Christian and Muslim religious leaders," Ahmadinejad told the frenzied crowd.

Nabila, who attended the rally, said "Ahmadinejad is going to terrify the Israelis."

"We hope to see (Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah with him here and to see them both one day on the other side of the border," added the 36-year-old, who declined to give her last name.

Ahmadinejad later headed to Qana, which has earned a grim place in history after being targeted by Israeli shelling that killed 105 civilians who had sought shelter in a U.N. base in 1996 during the Jewish state's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive on Lebanon.

The village was again the site of tragedy when a shelter collapsed on dozens of residents, including disabled children, during Israeli strikes at the height of the month-long 2006 war.

Israeli officials have slammed Ahmadinejad's two-day official visit as a sign Lebanon had "joined the axis of extremist states," while the United States said it was a "provocation".

"It appears his intentions are blatantly hostile and he is coming to play with fire," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse.

The visit has underscored Iran's reach in Lebanon through its ally Hizbullah, the most powerful military and political force in the country.

However, the trip has drawn criticism from Lebanon's pro-Western parliamentary majority, who see it as an attempt to turn the country into "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean."

The visit comes at a sensitive time in Lebanese politics with Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri locked in a standoff with Hizbullah over a U.N.-backed probe on the assassination of his father, ex-premier Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal is rumored to be set to indict members of the Shiite armed group over the 2005 assassination, and tensions have grown steadily in recent weeks, raising fears of renewed sectarian violence and the collapse of Lebanon's hard-won national unity government.

Though Ahmadinejad has trod carefully since his arrival in Lebanon in addressing domestic issues, he nonetheless rose to the defense of Hizbullah at a rally on Wednesday, saying the U.N. court was framing the Shiite party.

Disdain for Hariri's camp among Hizbullah supporters was apparent during Ahmadinejad's visit, when every mention of Hariri's name was met with jeering from the crowd.

The Iranian leader also gave a speech earlier on Thursday at the state-run Lebanese University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in political science.

He defended Iran's controversial nuclear program and accused the West of seeking to curtail any progress in the Middle East.

"The West claims that our research in the nuclear field is aimed at developing an atomic bomb," he told an audience of several hundred students and faculty.

"We are seeking to spread science and they want us to keep us in the dark."(Naharnet-AFP)