Exuberant welcome for Ahmadinejad in Beirut

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Beirut for a controversial visit that will take him to the Israeli border, and is seen as a boost for the Shia-Muslim-based group, Hezbollah. At the airport, he was cheerd by thousands of Hezbollah supporters waving Iranian flags.

Reuters

Ahmadinejad was greeted at the airport by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of Amal, another majority Shia movement, and a delegation of Hezbollah politicians. He waved to the crowd as his convoy headed to the presidential palace, outside Beirut.

Streets leading to the airport, located near Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs, were cordoned off amid tight security.

Ahmadinejad's two-day visit has sparked criticism among Lebanon's pro-Western parliamentary majority, who see it as a bid to portray Lebanon as "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean".

The United States and Israel, which have sought to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme, have also expressed concern.

Ahead of the visit, Ahmadinejad said Lebanon was a key base of resistance in the region. His trip also comes at a sensitive time in politically turbulent Lebanon.

Hezbollah is locked in a standoff with Prime Minister Saad Hariri over unconfirmed reports that a UN-backed tribunal is to indict its members over the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, the former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Tensions over the tribunal have grown, raising fears of renewed sectarian violence and the collapse of Lebanon's national unity government.

Ahmadinejad is to meet President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and parliament speaker Nabih Berri as well as a number of politicians.

He will also meet Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding since his party's 2006 war with Israel.

The highlight of Ahmadinejad's trip will comes on Thursday when he'll be just a few kilometres from the Israeli border as he tours southern Lebanese villages destroyed during the 2006 conflict.