March 14 Urges Ahmadinejad to Persuade Resistance to Join Confines of the State

The March 14 forces issued an open letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the occasion of his visit to Lebanon in which it hoped that the visit would "support our sovereign and independent country as well as our way of life, just as your predecessor's visit, President Mohammad Khatami, did and touched all the Lebanese hearts."

It stressed: "A group of Lebanese takes its strength from you and abuses it against the others, as well as against the state in an attempt to restore absurd and unfortunate adventures executed by different non-Lebanese parties successively for decades. This is half of the bitter truth. Its other half is that you are attempting to interfere, just like others that came before you, in our affairs, where foreign interference was only used to manipulate Lebanon internally; the big slogans and the good intentions could not block the actual truth of this use.

On this note, the March 14 Secretariat General demanded the Iranian president to try to persuade the Resistance to enter the confines of the state.

It continued: "As talks are focused on the confrontation of Israel and the United States, we draw your attention to your words: 'changing the face of the region starting from Lebanon', 'the defeat of the United States on Lebanese territory', and 'wiping out the Israeli state by the force of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon'… These words are far from being keen on Lebanon as much as they are far from reality. They also show that your visit is that of a top leader to his main battle front."

"You, Mr. President, are not doing anything more than what the Arab countries had done for decades, when they made our country the only military confrontation front against Israel," it noted.

"We are not advocates of distancing ourselves away from the causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict, or away from supporting the Palestinian rights. We do not think that anyone in Lebanon today calls against these issues, but it is our right to chart our role in the light of our diagnosis of our national interests, just like all the respectable countries do, including yours. We chart our role and characterize our interest in four main points, starting with the priority of maintaining our unique coexistence since it is considered as our mission to this world and contribution to its stability. We hold on to the slogan 'Lebanon first', not against anyone, but as a response to all of our past mistakes of putting anything in this world above the interest of our homeland. We hold on to the slogan 'the state first' since it is our only way to a secure a future for all of us. Finally, we adhere to all our Arab and international commitments, especially the Arab peace Initiative and resolution 1701 since it is considered the cornerstone in the protection of Lebanon," the open letter added.

Furthermore, it voiced its concern of the emergence of a "Shiite issue" in Lebanon and the Middle East, similar to the "Eastern issue" of the previous century, as a result of "your tendency to place your hand on the Shiite population of some Arab countries, including Lebanon."

"Honesty here is a thousand times better than silence about something that is felt by everyone in our region," it said.

It called Ahmadinejad to say the "right word" on which best relations between a state and another can be built as "we are seekers of friendship, not amateurs of objection and refusal."

International law is responsible for the sovereignty of nations and mutual respect between them, it stressed.