We defeated U.S., Iran leader tells Hezbollah

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the visiting leader of Lebanese Hezbollah that the United States has been “genuinely weakened in the region, as shown by its defeat in Iraq and the failure of their plans for Lebanon and Iran”, the official Iranian news agency reported on Tuesday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the visiting leader of Lebanese Hezbollah that the United States has been “genuinely weakened in the region, as shown by its defeat in Iraq and the failure of their plans for Lebanon and Iran”, the official Iranian news agency reported on Tuesday.

“The region is now in a new situation, which means a correct appreciation of the situation, appropriate decisions, and timely actions are going to be very decisive”, Khamenei told Lebanese Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrollah.

“The Americans thought that revolutionary zeal in Iran has been weakened but they were shocked and bewildered by the results of the election and the high turnout, and they have been forced to retreat for a long time to come”.

In an earlier meeting on Monday, Iran’s hard-line President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the Hezbollah chief that the Islamic Republic would continue to support the Shiite group.

Ahmadinejad said that Hezbollah was the manifestation of real Islam in Lebanon and praised the “successes and achievements of Hezbollah in the political, social, military, and cultural spheres”.

Nasrollah also met with outgoing President Mohammad Khatami who reassured him of Iran’s unflinching support for the Lebanese group.

Khatami denounced calls for Hezbollah to disarm as “a conspiracy on the part of the enemies of Islam”, adding that Iran would strategically reinforce Hezbollah.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of Iran’s powerful State Expediency Council and two-time President in Iran, said at a separate meeting with Nasrollah that Hezbollah must “thwart poisonous propaganda of the Zionist regime and its supporters in Lebanon”.

Nasrollah’s visit to Tehran comes in the week when Ahmadinejad will take over as Iran’s new president. The consolidation of power by the ultra-conservative camp led by the Supreme Leader in Iran was greeted with much enthusiasm by Hezbollah and other Islamist groups supported by the theocratic regime in Iran.