Dinner in Damascus: What Did Iran Ask of Hizballah?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | Post a comment
On February 26, Syrian president Bashar al-Asad hosted Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah for a dinner in Damascus. Nasrallah is a routine guest in the capital, but the timing of this high-profile trip — just a week after the United States dispatched Undersecretary of State William Burns to Damascus and nominated its first new ambassador in five years — seemed calculated not only to irritate Washington, but also to highlight the central role Hizballah plays in Iran and Syria’s strategic planning. Apart from serving as a pivot between Tehran and Damascus, however, the group also holds the power to engulf Lebanon and perhaps the entire region into another war through actions of its own.