Hizbullah in every corner
Photo: AP
Tehran against Israel throughout war
Photo: AP
Iran: Victory celebrations, threats to Israel
Thousands of citizens take to streets chanting, 'Lebanon won, Israel destroyed'; dozens of ambulances hold procession in show of empathy with casualties of war. Senior religious figure in Iran warns: 'If Israel and US attack us, we will shoot missiles at Tel Aviv'
Iranians find cause for celebration. Upwards of 110 ambulances and mobile intensive care units rode through the center of Tehran Tuesday morning as a sign of solidarity with the Lebanese people, as reported by the Iranian news agency, Fars. Ambulance teams continued driving toward the mosque of Tehran University in order to show their willingness to help the Lebanese wounded in the past month.
Already Monday night thousands of Iranians took to the streets in celebration of what they defined as a Shiite and Hizbullah victory over the Zionist regime. In the streets of Iran, believers took advantage of the evening prayers to praise the Lebanese nation on Hizbullah's victory.
In parades toward the mosques calling "Allah is great, Khamenei is the leader," "Lebanon won with Hizbullah's help," Lebanon is victorious, Israel is destroyed," and "Hizbullah finally won." The daily internet newspaper Rooz Online, run by exiled Iranians, added that the marchers waived flags of Hizbullah and handed out miniature flags to children.
Celebrating victory against 'Zionist enemy' in streets of Tehran (Photo: AP)
Basij, the volunteer army of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, declared a holiday following the ceasefire declaration. According to reports, most of the signs across Tehran were dedicated to blessing Hizbullah's victory, and were covered in pictures of Hizbullah's leader, Hasan Nasrallah.
Alongside the celebrations, senior religious figure Ahmad Khatamei announced Tuesday that "if the United States or Israel attack Iran, Iran will shoot rockets at Tel Aviv."
'Take into account Iranian Shihab-3 missiles'
He added: "The missiles shot by Hizbullah into Israel had a range of 70 kilometers and managed to turn Israel into a 'ghost country.' If the United States is considering attacking us, it must take into account the Iranian Shihab-3 missiles, whose range is 2,000 kilometers, and can hit the center of Tel Aviv."
Threats of this sort have been heard often in the past year within the framework of the nuclear threat, in which Iran is the center. With the end of the war in Lebanon, it seems as though the issue will still be a focal point of the agenda. Sunday Iran publicly rejected demands to halt uranium enrichment in her territory, and threatened that pressure put on her by the West is likely to change her nuclear policy.
The Red Crescent aid organization in Iran announced Tuesday morning that it is expecting to send an airplane of 30 tons of equipment to Lebanon. The aid package will include chadors (head coverings for women, obligatory under Iranian law), bedding and blankets for the people in southern Lebanon.
According to the head of field operations in the organization, Safar-Ali Nahari-Kazian, "following the establishment of the ceasefire in Lebanon, a new phase of aid to Lebanon is starting, and beside the airplane, 26 ambulances will be transferred to Lebanon on trucks by land."
