BEIRUT: Cheering crowds greeted Iran's President Mohammad Khatami in Beirut yesterday as he began a historic visit expected to deal with US demands to curb Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas.
President Khatami is the first Iranian leader since the 1979 Islamic revolution to visit Lebanon, which, together with Syria, came under US pressure last week to secure Hizbollah's withdrawal from a border zone where it has clashed with Israeli troops.
Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and a Hizbollah delegation met Mr Khatami at the airport.
Iran has long had hostile relations with Washington, but there are signs of a return to dialogue. Analysts expect Mr Khatami to press Hizbollah, which had used Iranian aid to fight Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon, for more restraint in its conflict with Israel in the disputed Shebaa Farms.
Mr Hariri said neither side wanted to inflame tensions in the area. However, both agreed that Lebanese and Syrian claims to Israeli-occupied land needed to be addressed.
"We still have in Lebanon part of our land occupied; the Syrians have the Golan Heights. All these need to be solved," Mr Hariri said, referring to Shebaa Farms and the Golan which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
"I don't see President Khatami looking for confrontation. I don't see (Syrian) President (Bashar) al-Assad looking for confrontation.
"In Lebanon we are not looking for confrontation, we are looking to solve our problems, keep our rights and give peace the best and largest chance possible," he told reporters.
Iran and Lebanon later signed six economic and other accords, including a $50 million Iranian loan.
Mr Khatami criticised Washington, which has overthrown governments in Iran's neighbours Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now squeezing Tehran over its nuclear programme.
"The occupation of Iraq was a mistake," Mr Khatami wrote in Lebanon's As-Safir daily.
"It would be a bigger mistake for the attacking forces to impose an immoral and strange regime on these people.
"Let the American people be aware that these policies of the bosses in Washington will come back to harm them in the long run." - (Reuters)