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The New York Times
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: July 23, 2006
 TEHRAN,
July 22 — There is a huge amount of anger here about what is happening in Lebanon,
but it is not all the result of Israeli bombs, missiles and artillery.
“Of course I am angry,’’ said Hamid Akbari, 30, a deliveryman. “All our income is
going to Palestine
and Hezbollah.”
For decades, Iran
has been Hezbollah’s prime patron, helping create it as a Shiite Muslim
militia and then nurture it with money, expertise and weapons. But now that
Hezbollah is in the midst of full-blown fighting with Israel,
Iranian officials have been adamant in insisting that they had nothing to do
with the events that set off the crisis.
Part of the reason may be fear, or concern, that the United States and Europe would punish Iran, if it
were proved otherwise. But Iranian officials may have a wary eye on their
public. In interviews in central Tehran Saturday,
person after person said the same thing: Iran
should worry about Iran’s
problems and not be dragged down by other’s battles.
“We Iranians have a saying,” said Ali Reza Moradi,
35, a portrait artist who works in a small booth downtown. “We should save
our own house first and then save the mosque. A lot of people think this way.
The government should help its people first, and then help the people in Lebanon.”
With the fall of the Sunni-led government in Iraq,
and the routing of the Taliban in Afghanistan,
Iran
has seen its regional influence grow stronger. As the Sunni Arab capitals of Cairo, Amman, Jordan, and Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, witnessed
their own political influence in the region waning, Iran tried to
fill the gap. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
has become extremely popular among many Arabs for his strong anti-Western and
anti-Israeli language. And Iran’s
role as patron of Hezbollah and Hamas has given it
unrivaled influence over two radical groups that have set the regional
agenda, more so than governments.
But the picture in Iran
itself is a bit more nuanced. Although Iran sits atop one of the largest
known oil reserves, it cannot refine enough gasoline to meet its own needs —
and so prices are rising. Mr. Ahmadinejad may have
been elected on a populist economic message, but on the streets people report
more pain, more unemployment and higher prices.
Hamidreza Jalaipour, a
sociologist and former government official, said that on this point Iranians
might agree but that they were also fickle.
“Iranians are very sensitive and want our money to stay in the country and be
spent for Iranians to solve their problems,’’ Mr. Jalaipour
said. “But, you cannot rely on what they say because their opinion changes
quickly, and if the war continues, they might say something else.”
Nevertheless, the Hezbollah crisis occurred at a time of already heightened
anxiety. Many Iranians were already nervous about the potential for sanctions
as a result of their government’s nuclear program. Iranians have rallied
behind the line strongly promoted by their government, that nuclear power is
their inalienable right. And while they may have been willing to tolerate
further public isolation over something they see as their right, there is far
less unity about standing up for Lebanon, many people said
Saturday.
“Let them fight with each other until they get tired,” said Reza Muhammadi, 33, who runs small grocery in the center of
town. “Arab countries are not supporting Hezbollah, but my country is? They
are giving my share to the Arabs.”
Mr. Muhammad said he worked six days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to feed
his family. So, he said, he had no tolerance for his government’s financial
commitments abroad. “One percent of our budget has been approved by my
Parliament to give to Palestine,”
he said. “Why should I not get angry about this?”
In a recent edition of the daily newspaper Aftab-e Yazd,
one reader wrote in saying: “Radio and television broadcast so many programs
about Arab countries that I sometimes wonder if it is the Iranian TV or an
Arab TV. Such vast and big propaganda has caused a kind of indifference and
even negative sense toward Arab nations.”
Of course, such sentiments are not universal. There are people like Zahra Etefaghian, 51, who runs a small coffee shop near the art
museum, who said: “We should really support them, and we should bear the
consequences. At emergency times like this, we have to help Muslim people.”
But talk of direct Iranian actions in Lebanon is being officially
discouraged — and denied. On Thursday, a group calling itself the
Headquarters for the Glory of Martyrs of the International Movement announced
that it had an army of 55,000 would-be suicide bombers among its members and
had already dispatched 27 to fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A few days later Mohammad Hejazi, commander of the
vigilante force known as the Basiji, said that
reports about would-be suicide bombers going to Lebanon “have nothing to do with
official organizations in the country.”
Everybody here, it seems, is going to great lengths to insist that Iran had
no role in setting off this crisis, saying that Hezbollah was too far away,
and too independent, to be controlled from Tehran.
“The Hezbollah forces have done a great job and have resisted well,” said Ali
Akhbar Hasehmi
Rafsanjani, the former president and chairman of the Expediency Council, in
recent public remarks. But, he added, “it is misleading to say that Iran and Syria are carrying this out.”
Even a figure like Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, who had been one of the founders of
Hezbollah in Lebanon,
commented cautiously about Iran’s
role in the current conflict. “Iran cannot play an instrumental
role because of the long distance,” he told the daily Etemad
Melli recently. “Besides, Arab countries consider
the issue of Palestine and Lebanon as an Arab issue,” he added,
suggesting that Iran,
as a non-Arab nation, should keep its distance.
Whether or not Iran
played a role in actually inciting the crisis seemed irrelevant to people
interviewed Saturday.
Ali Muhammadi runs a small DVD shop, a closet-size
booth where he sells pirated DVD’s for about $1 each. “I don’t think it’s an
important issue for us,” he said of the conflict in Lebanon. “I
think the government should take care of its people first.”
Nazila Fathi contributed reporting for this article.
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