“A symbolic seminal moment”

Rami Khoury on why President Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon is generating so much drama and tension:

[the visit] touches on some of the most emotional and existential hot-button issues in the region. This is because Iran’s success in helping Hizbullah become a dominant force in Lebanon and a major regional player in the Arab-Israeli confrontation makes this perhaps the only significant foreign policy success of the Islamic revolution in Iran. The combination of Iran and Hizbullah also frightens many people in Lebanon and the Arab world, in Israel, and in the US and other Western lands. The Iranian president’s visit to Lebanon thus captures in a single moment, place and personality all these fears

Translation: The Lebanese, the Arabs, the Israelis and the US are all angry with Ahamdinejad. And yet he comes to Lebanon, struts along as if he owns the place and gives everyone the middle finger.