Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon: Our Income from Oil Barrel was 2$, We Managed to Hang on

Firas al-Shoufi - al-Akhbar newspaper

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, briefs the bulk of visit of the Head of the Iranian Shoura Council, Ali Larijani, to "West Asia," in two headlines: Iran backs the countries of the region to hit terrorism at a historic time, keeping in mind the Zionist terrorism. Between the two headlines, lies the support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his legitimate government.

Heavy rains could not render the security measures around the Iranian Embassy in Beirut any less strict. The traffic on early Sundays is almost off in Bir Hassan area while the personnel of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic will have to work for extra hours.

The echo of Larijani's visit to Lebanon is still resounding in the corridors of the diplomats. According to Ambassador Fathali, "The visit is important and significant in its form, timing, and content."

The envoy seems comfortable in his casual clothes on a day off. In the salon next to his office, he tries to draw the features of Larijani's tour in Lebanon and the region, in his excellent Arabic language and his "selective"diplomacy.

In the background, Fathali points out to the depiction of the Islamic Republic to the situation in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, calling them "West Asia." Iranians show little appetite for the "Middle East" description. "The region and the countries supporting the Resistance axis are witnessing actions by unprecedented terrorist groups." One of the most dangerous threats, according to the Ambassador, is "ISIL", al-Nusra Front, and the rest of the terrorist groups seeking to create disputes among Muslims, whereby "Israel" is the most advantageous.

"Those are not dangerous to Islam and Muslims solely, but also to the entire world." However, danger to Iran is not to compare to the threats that showed up in Afghanistan with Taliban. "This situation is the most dangerous in decades. What the terrorists of al-Qaeda and Taliban did is a sample of what is happening now and we believe that ISIS is a continuity of al-Qaeda and Taliban."

Iran believes, according to Fathali, that the region is through a critical historic juncture, and that the targeted countries must be aware and wise. "We must be creative in depth so that we manage to deal with the dangerous situation," he says, reiterating that the terrorists are backed by regional and foreign states as well as by the Zionist entity.

Building on the aforementioned, Iran sees that it must play a fruitful role to face these plots. "We must observe the situation on the ground and not from afar." Fathali briefs the Iranian role in backing Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, saying that the Islamic Republic "offers consultancy and military advice in order to stamp out terrorism and overthrow conspiracies." In addition, "Iran is confident that the targeted countries are capable, through collaboration and coordination with each other, of trouncing terrorism without the need of foreign states. In fact, the US-led international coalition is neither real nor realistic."

The Ambassador places Larijani's visit under two categories; he first ranks it as a regional visit in the face of the terrorism danger and the Zionist one. He second depicts it as a visit to pay attention to the problems of each country aside. He adds, "The renewal of Iran's support for the legitimate government in Syria gained a significant dimension."

He indicates that Iran has said since the beginning of the Syrian crisis to the foreign and regional states that putting President Bashar al-Assad out of power is not the solution because this will open the door to the terrorist organizations.

He adds, "We sent warnings that working on toppling al-Assad means helping the terrorists. After some time, the theory of the Islamic Republic was proven right." Fathali quotes President Hassan Rouhani as saying, "The resistance of the army and the Syrian people against terrorism gave a lesson to those who stood in the face of the Resistance axis; it is impossible to beat the Resistance axis through funding and providing military support for terrorists in order to overthrow legitimate governments." He regrets that despite the advice, the Europeans and the states backing terrorism ignored the warnings and lost a lot of time due to their insisting on ousting al-Assad.

According the Fathali, this visit comes in line with Iran's cleaving to the fact that the real danger to the Islamic world is the Zionist entity. The Ambassador does not fail to recall a saying for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to which the situation in the region and the activities of terrorists in Syria and Iraq must not distract us from the danger of the Zionist entity. Talking about "Israel's" expansion danger, the diplomat shines light on the meeting held between Larijani and the Palestinian factions at Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut, where representatives of most of the Palestinians forces were present, including Hamas and Fatah.

Moreover, the Ambassador maintains that Iran supports all the countries in the region against terrorism, before broaching the support for Lebanon and the donation of the Islamic Republic to gear up the Lebanese army.

When asked about the donation, Fathali smiles. Albeit the Lebanese government's failure to accept the donation as yet, Fathali says, "The donation had positive consequences on Lebanon. It speeded up the arrival of weapons from other countries." He notes that Larijani's visit reiterated in front of the Lebanese officials what the Secretary General of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, had proposed in his recent visit in Lebanon, on Iran's unchanging position from the donation to the Lebanese army. Besides the military cooperation, Fathali underscores that talks with the Lebanese officials touched on cooperation between Lebanon and Iran, especially on the scientific level, as well as on the economic and commercial trade and the means to benefit from Iran's experience in that respect.

Furthermore, linking the Iranian nuclear dossier and the election of a new president of the Lebanese republic is a funny matter for the Ambassador who labels this as sheer rumors. "Larijani has updated the Lebanese officials of the developments of the nuclear dossier," he indicates, adding that this dossier is limited to Iran and the P5+1 and that Iran refuses to talk about any other issue related to this topic.

Besides, Fathali does not like to answer questions from outside the frame of Larijani's visit, but he seems confident that the Islamic Republic is steadfast in the face of the oil war targeting it and Russia, reminding of the hard days when "the oil barrel used to make a two-dollar income, and we managed to hang on."