BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2020) Lebanese Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah on Saturday unveiled a statue of slain Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani near Lebanon's southern border with Israel, video posted on social media shows.
According to independent Lebanese newspaper Al-Modon, the statue showing the likeness of Soleimani points towards Jerusalem with a Palestinian flag waving behind him in the Maroun el-Ras region, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Videos of the statue's unveiling caused an online furor among Lebanese citizens who took issue with Hezbollah's exaltation of a foreign commander - considered a terrorist by many Western nations.
Soleimani was a prominent military general who headed the elite Quds Force, an extraterritorial military and intelligence arm that sought to spread Iran's influence in the middle East.
The general was assassinated in a targeted drone strike on January 3 in Baghdad on orders from US President Donald Trump. His killing brought the US and Iran dangerously close to open conflict.
Hezbollah has enjoyed crucial Iranian support since its founding in the early 1980's and remains the pivotal point in the Islamic Republic's so-called "Axis of Resistance" that spans from Tehran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. and claims to strive for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation.
