Ahmadinejad visits Hezbollah strongholdsSTORY HIGHLIGHTS- Ahmadinejad delivers remarks near Israeli border
- It is his first state visit to Lebanon
- He also slammed the West in other remarks
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled Thursday to the always-tense Lebanese border with Israel, showered praise on Lebanon's unity and cranked up his trademark fiery rhetoric against his nemesis -- the Jewish state.
During his first state visit to Lebanon, Ahmadinejad delivered a speech to the people of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold that endured much violence during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.
At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in heavy fighting around the area as Hezbollah fighters pushed back in the violence that began in July 2006, when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
A U.N.-brokered cease-fire deal eventually called for Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for Lebanese army troops to deploy south of the Litani River.
Video: Iran's latest power play Ahmadinejad, who regularly and bluntly delivers strong rhetoric against Israel and Zionism, said the "world must know the Zionists are to be gone" and the "people of Bint Jbiel have made the Zionists taste the bitter taste of defeat."
He added that the lack of hope generated toward Israel by the Lebanese will give the "Zionists have no choice but to submit to the will of the people and to return to their first homes."
"You showed that the will of the Lebanese nation and Lebanon's resistance is sharper than the swords of the Zionists," he said.
Zionists have no choice but to submit to the will of the people and to return to their first homes.--President Ahmadinejad RELATED TOPICS- Iran
- Israel
- Lebanon
Ahmadinejad called Bint Jbeil the capital of "freedom," "resistance" and "victory."
"The world must know the Zionists one day will come to break the resistance of nations here," but he asked, today where are they now and where is Bint Jbeil?
"I declare it is alive and will stand firm," he said. "They must know Bint Jbeil is holding its head up and will stand until the end against enemies."
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite group with links to Iran, and has its share of backers and detractors in the religiously diverse country, where Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and Druze co-exist.
The United States lists the group as a foreign terrorist organization known or suspected to have been involved with several anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli terror strikes, the State Department said.
Mark Regev, the Israeli prime minister's spokesman, said Thursday that "Iran's domination of Lebanon, through its proxy Hezbollah, has prevented Lebanon from being a partner in peace and turned Lebanon into an Iranian satellite and a hub of regional terror and instability."
Earlier Thursday, Ahmadinejad gave a speech at the Lebanese University in Beirut in which he charged that Western countries were trying to dominate the region.
"What have the Western countries done in Afghanistan?" the Iranian president asked. "Ask them where are those terrorists, where in Afghanistan are they hiding? Everything has been ambiguous. But through propaganda and through the media, they have portrayed themselves as liberators."
CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.