TEHRAN – Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati has hailed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to southern Lebanon as a severe blow to the U.S. and the Zionist regime.

President Ahmadinejad visited Bint Jbeil on Thursday afternoon in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel. Residents of southern Lebanon had closed their shops, schools and offices to greet Ahmadinejad.
“Every slogan they (the Lebanese people) chanted in support of the president was like a hammer blow on the heads of the Americans and Zionists, because such a move was carried out near the Israeli border,” Jannati told worshippers on Friday.
“The U.S. and Israel are angry (at president’s visit to southern Lebanon). We tell them die with your anger,” he added.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for a two-day visit to hold talks with senior Lebanese officials and was warmly received by the Lebanese nation.
Jannati went on to say that Iran has always supported the oppressed Palestinian nation, so it is natural that the Lebanese people give Ahmadinejad such as great welcome.
This visit sent a message to the enemies that the Palestinian nation is not alone and Iran will stand on the Palestine’s side forever, the Guardian Council chairman emphasized.
This trip boosted the Palestinian and Lebanese nations’ morale to put up resistance against the Zionists, Jannati asserted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Jannati pointed to the subsidy reform plan and said all people know that this plan will benefit them, so they can tolerate the repercussions of it.
On delay in implementation of the subsidy reform plan, he said, “For sure the reforms will be implemented, but God knows when.”
Jannati also criticized the administration for raising some prices before the implementation of the plan.
“Administration officials should not turn people against the plan by their actions. People are ready for the rise in prices, but some prices have already (before the beginning of the plan) doubled, tripled or quadrupled,” he said.
The Iranian government plans to eliminate the subsidies on fuel, energy, and certain goods over the course of five years. The administration had previously announced that the implementation of the subsidy reform plan would begin in the second half of the Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 23 to October 22).