Ahmadinejad Meets Nasrallah in Damascus

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (R), Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C) and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) attend an official dinner in Damascus February 25, 2010. Picture taken February 25, 2010.

Always great photo ops with these guys ~ story from Tehran Times ~ is full of defiant anti-American anti-Israel stuff. And No that's not the Nazi salute!! Its the new duck wave!! All the rage in the Middle East.

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah held a meeting in Damascus on Thursday to discuss regional issues.

The Iranian president also held separate meetings with the Syrian president and the Hezbollah leader in the Syrian capital on Thursday.

During the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Assad, the two presidents said the two nations should strengthen their ties.

Ahmadinejad visited Syria one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Syria to downgrade its ties with Iran.

Speaking in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, Clinton announced that Washington had asked Syria to “begin to move away from the relationship with Iran, which is so deeply troubling to the region as well as to the United States.”

Syrian official news agency SANA, Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah, left, speaks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, upon their arrival for a dinner, in Damascus, Syria, late Thursday Feb. 25, 2010.


The United States seeks “to dominate the region, but they sense Iran and Syria are preventing” them from realizing their goal, Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian president also criticized the Unites States’ regional policy, saying, “Instead of interfering in the region’s affairs, pack your things and leave.”

Assad expressed strong support for the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying the U.S. stance toward Iran is another instance of colonialism in the region.

“I find it strange that they (Americans) talk about Middle East stability and peace and other beautiful principles and call for two countries to move away from each other,” Assad said when asked about Ms. Clinton’s remarks.

“We hope that others don’t give us lessons about our region and our history,” he added.

Ahmadinejad stated that the Iran-Syria alliance is unbreakable.

Lebanon's Hezbollah members take part in a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the assassination of military commander Imad Moughniyah in Beirut's suburbs February 16, 2010. Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday the Shi'ite guerrilla group would hit Israel's Ben Gurion airport if the Jewish state struck Beirut's international airport in any future war.


“Clinton said we should maintain a distance. I say there is no distance between Iran and Syria,” he noted.

Commenting on Israel’s threats, Assad said regional countries should always be prepared to respond to an Israeli attack.

Ahmadinejad said regional countries should try to create a future “without Zionism and without colonialists.”

In his talks with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, the Iranian president said the Zionist regime is afraid of the resistance and the Lebanese people.

And Israel’s latest threats show the weakness of this illegitimate regime, he stated.

Ahmadinejad said Iran supports Lebanon, adding, “The Iranian nation will always stand on the side of the resistance” and if the Zionist regime repeats its previous mistakes, regional countries will respond very harshly.

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, Hezbollah members perform during a rally commemorating the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander Imad Mughniyeh in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon.


He also stressed the need to be prepared for an Israeli attack.

Nasrallah said Israel’s threats are empty and the Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah is not afraid of its threats.

“The Zionist regime is not in a position to start a new war. It is only trying to start a psychological war to create fear in the region,” the Hezbollah leader stated.

Tehran Times

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, Hezbollah members perform during a rally commemorating the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander Imad Mughniyeh in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Group Seyed Hassan Nasrallah in the Syrian Capital, Damascus.


Seyed Hassan Nasrallah attended a dinner banquet thrown in Damascus on Thursday by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in honor of his visiting Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television in Lebanon reported that Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad met to discuss "the latest developments in the region, and Zionist threats against Lebanon and Syria".

Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000.

Earlier on Thursday, President Ahmadinejad also met with Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khalid Mashaal, the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and officials of the other Palestinian groups.

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks through a giant screen from a secret location to a rally commemorating the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon. The leader of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah delivered an odd but deeply important political message to his followers: Heed traffic signs and pay your electric bills. The recent call may not seem particularly significant, but it was widely seen as the latest sign that Hezbollah _ long considered mainly as Iran's militant arm in Lebanon running its own state-within-a-state _ is reinventing itself as a more conventional political movement in Lebanon.