Mehr News on Lebanon: “The Cradle of Resistance”

Lebanese Hezbollah’s political leadership does not appear to have any interest in getting entangled in the Israel-Hamas conflict. And Iran appears to perceive Hezbollah principally as a deterrent against potential Israeli attacks against Iranian nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, the Iranian public seems “indifferent” to the war in Gaza. Mehr News, however, reported November 8 on the alleged popularity of Hamas in Lebanon and the willingness of the Lebanese to fight another war with Israel. Who is Mehr News trying to convince of Lebanon’s readiness for war?

• November 8: Mohammad-Ali Takht-Ravandeh of centrist Mehr News reported from Beirut:
  • “With regard to the popularity of the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon, Hamas appears to top the list, followed by the Islamic Jihad Movement, Fatah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine … Remarkably, Fatah or Palestine Liberation Organization members who are based in Lebanon do not follow the line of some of their leaders within Palestine who are in favor of collaboration” with Israel, “and there is not the slightest inclination toward collaboration and peace with the Zionists among them.”
  • “In my conversations with the Lebanese, I discovered that the people of Lebanon are moving according to the strategic guidelines issued by their leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese Hezbollah’s secretary general. This is to the extent that we can call Beirut the cradle of resistance … Talking with the young people, they said they are counting the minutes until the opening of a Lebanese front so they can participate in this war, and they are convinced and believe that in this war, too, the Axis of Resistance will defeat the Zionist regime.”

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