• Home
• /
• World

Iran has role to play in Lebanon’s stability: Hariri

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Iran has a role to play in maintaining his country’s stability, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday on the eve of Hariri’s first visit to Tehran.

---

---

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has a natural role in the region, especially in resolving crisis and strengthening stability in Lebanon,” Hariri was quoted as saying in an interview with the agency.

Hariri is to arrive in Tehran on Saturday for two days on his first official visit and is to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials.

The trip comes a little more than a month after Ahmadinejad made a similar visit to Lebanon, where he was given a hero’s welcome by supporters of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The visit also comes amid a tense political standoff between Hariri’s pro-Western camp and Hezbollah over a UN tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.

A Lebanese ministerial source told AFP that Hariri hoped Iran would help to reconcile the two rival groups.

“This visit is important because of its timing at the time when Lebanon is in crisis because of the expected indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” the source said.

The tribunal is expected to implicate high-ranking Hezbollah officials in the murder, but the party has warned against that, prompting fears of a sectarian conflict between Hariri’s Sunni supporters and the Shiite Hezbollah.

“The Iranians will try to reconcile points of view between Hezbollah and Saad Hariri,” the source said.

In return, Hariri would support Iran’s “development of nuclear capabilities for civilian and peaceful purposes,” the source added.