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Will Lebanon's new president give up on old friends?

Mohammad Javad Zarif became the first foreign minister to personally congratulate Lebanon’s new president, but what does the Iranian rush really say about the geopolitical game being played out in Beirut?
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacts while talking to media after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir - RTX2SD9X
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BEIRUT — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was the first foreign minister to congratulate newly elected Lebanese President Michel Aoun in person in Beirut on Nov. 7. It was a significant step for Iranian diplomacy to convey a message of support to Lebanon’s new head of state and to hint that Lebanese-Iranian relations will improve. This was echoed by outgoing Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil on Nov. 8 at a conference for Lebanese and Iranian businessmen in which Zarif was in attendance. Bassil called on Lebanese investors to go to Iran. “We need to boost our economic relations to parallel our political relations,” the Lebanese official said, adding, “Iran was encircled for years, and this gave the Iranians great benefits in relying on themselves. Now it's time to share it with the world.”

Zarif began his visit to Lebanon on Nov. 7 by meeting Aoun at the presidential palace and describing his host’s election as “a victory for all the factions of the dear Lebanese people.” Aoun vowed that Lebanon will continue its fight against terrorism, reiterating that there’s no substitute to a political solution in Syria. Zarif’s meeting with Aoun came just hours after a Syrian presidential envoy delivered to the new Lebanese president a congratulatory message from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mansour Azzam, the minister of Syrian presidency affairs, told reporters there was no need to open “a new page” in bilateral ties following the election of Aoun. “There was no old page in order to open a new page. It is a continuing page of constant and balanced relations,” he said.

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