I kid you not, for his forthcoming visit to Lebanon has been billed as a “historic event” and likely to unite the fractious country:

Al-Diar newspaper in its Sunday edition said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit would bring calm to Lebanon and cause a form of ‘ceasefire’ among the country’s political factions. [Source]

Ok. Right.

Lebanon has been warring for too many decades and bears more fissures than a thrice re-glued china cup – the pomp surrounding the above assertion is less one of hope, and more a confirmation of the bombast surrounding Ahmadinejad.

I will be watching from the cynic’s bench, waiting for the next development in inter-Lebanese relations.

And somehow, I doubt it will be positive.

As for the notion of “historic,” the only event in which Ahmadinejad could be cited alongside those two words would be the release of all political prisoners from Evin and a cessation in the systematic abrogation of human rights in Iran.

Which is about as likely to happen as peace to grow from his sojourn to Lebanon.