An important guest visited Lebanon in recent days, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abd Allahian who arrived in Beirut and met with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and senior officials in the Lebanese government.
His meetings with senior government officials in Lebanon dealt with the consequences of the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran on the situation in Lebanon and the election of a new president for Lebanon.
Abd Allahian’s visit to Beirut is interpreted as an Iranian message to the Lebanese that following Iran’s signing of an agreement with Saudi Arabia, Iran has no intention of giving up its influence on Lebanon.
He also visited southern Lebanon together with Hezbollah representatives, observed the border with Israel and expressed his support for the Lebanese resistance.
The Iranian Foreign Minister held several meetings at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut with more than 20 members of the Lebanese Parliament and emphasized the need for the Lebanese to reach an agreement among themselves regarding the new president of Lebanon.
In other words, he clearly hinted that Iran recommends aligning themselves with Hezbollah’s line that promotes the candidacy of former minister Suleiman Faranjiya for the presidency.
Former minister Suleiman Faranjiya is Hassan Nasrallah’s candidate for the presidency and he officially mentions his name in his speeches and openly supports him.
Suleiman Franjiya himself expresses optimism that the situation in Lebanon will improve in light of the changes in the region, chief among them the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the rapprochement of Saudi Arabia with Syria. He is encouraged by the fact that France supports his candidacy for the presidency and by Hezbollah’s insistence on continuing to support him as the next president of Lebanon.
Hezbollah sends a clear message to the Lebanese that Suleiman Faranjiya is the only candidate for the position of president and that not supporting him means a political vacuum for a very long time.
Hezbollah is looking for a president who will be its puppet, just as the previous president, General Michel Aoun was. As mentioned, France supports Suleiman Faranjiya’s candidacy for the presidency, but there is strong opposition in the Lebanese domestic arena to his election as president, the two Christian blocs oppose his candidacy for the presidency, the “Free National Party” and “Lebanese Forces Party”.
They are working to thwart his election as president and are using the Lebanese constitution which states that a president must be elected by the parliament with a two-thirds majority.
Suleiman Faranjiya is considered by his opponents to be a corrupt politician, part of the government apparatus that has looted Lebanon’s finances in recent years, and a puppet of Syria. For them, his election as President of Lebanon means handing Lebanon over to Iran, which will strengthen its hegemony in Lebanon.
Faranjiya, for his part, began a campaign of courting and flattering all the parties in Lebanon as well as Saudi Arabia, a few days ago he said that he has no hostility towards Saudi Arabia and only wants good for the Arabs and Saudi Arabia.
Hezbollah expresses optimism regarding the possibility that Suleiman Faranjiya will be elected president of Lebanon, Sheikh Naim Kassem, Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah, said on April 28th that the positive signs are increasing day by day on the way to electing a president for the republic and that Hezbollah supports Suleiman Faranjiya because he has the qualities of worthiness to be the president.
He added that the countries of the world are convinced that they cannot impose on the Lebanese the figure that will be the next president of Lebanon.
The ramifications of the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia on the election of a president for Lebanon
Throughout the years, Saudi Arabia has had a great influence on Lebanese politics, Lebanon cannot recover economically without the help of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, which gives Saudi Arabia a great influence on the election of the next president in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is convinced that Saudi Arabia’s agreement with Iran will have a positive effect on the resolution of several disputes and conflicts in the Middle East, such as achieving a ceasefire and a political solution to the war in Yemen, in which Saudi Arabia is involved, and also on the issue of the election of the president in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is waiting for Iran to convince Saudi Arabia to support Suleiman Faranjiya’s candidacy for President of Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia is biding its time to see in the meantime whether Iran will deliver the goods when it comes to ending the war in Yemen.
It seems that Iran is indeed interested in showing the world that its agreement with Saudi Arabia is not a fraud and that following it the Middle East is moving in a more positive direction, one of the most prominent issues is reaching an agreement on the issue of the presidential elections in Lebanon.
Hezbollah placed Suleiman Faranjiya at the forefront of the political stage in Lebanon and sent a clear message to the Lebanese saying that this is the next president for them and they must accept him because there is no other suitable candidate for the position.
Suleiman Faranjiya is trying to publicly disavow the label that has been attached to him that he supports Syria and that he belongs to the resistance axis led by Iran, he claims in interviews with the media in Lebanon that he will not be a “shadow president” and that he does not take orders from any party but acts from independent positions.
The Lebanese public is not buying the new goods that Suleiman Faranjiya is trying to sell them, as things seem now a lot depends on the question of what will be the final position of Saudi Arabia on the issue of the next president of Lebanon and whether Iran will be able to soften it.
The election of Suleiman Faranjiya will strengthen Iran’s hegemony in Lebanon and the region, and of course this move is not good for Israel and the US.
Lebanon will indeed achieve political stability, but it will become even more of a proxy for Iran, which will have a great influence on the decision-making system in Lebanon.
