* Tehran's Arab allies relieved as see crisis ending * Alliances won't change in foreseeable future-analyst * Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah urges Iran to "bandage wounds" By Laila Bassam BEIRUT, June 26 (Reuters) - Iran's allies in the Arab world are breathing sighs of relief in the belief that the Islamic Republic is through the worst of a crisis triggered by its disputed presidential election. "The concern about what is going on Iran is legitimate but does not reach the extent of fear for the regime," a senior Lebanese Shi'ite politician said. Tehran's support has been vital to Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, armed factions that oppose U.S. policy in the Middle East. Likewise, Syria's alliance with Iran is central to its strategy for confronting Israel, which has occupied Syrian territory since the 1967 Middle East war. Tehran's allies to the west have been following as closely as anyone the fallout of the June 12 election, including protests that have defied the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Sayyed Khamenei is still in control," the politician said. "We look with relief to the containment of the situation because we are talking about something of concern to Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian affairs." The demonstrations, the biggest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have largely been forced off the streets by a combination of the security forces, warnings and arrests. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have harnessed Iranian support in their struggle against Israel, but also in confrontations with domestic rivals backed by the United States and its conservative Arab allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Syria, whose alliance with Iran is almost as old as the Islamic Republic, recently sent a delegation to Tehran in a show of solidarity, a political source said. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said this week that "anyone betting on the Iranian regime falling will lose". Suleiman Taqieddin, a columnist with Lebanon's as-Safir newspaper, said: "The relationship between these forces and Iran will not change at all in the foreseeable future." KHAMENEI CLASSMATE SAYS IRAN NEARLY OUT OF "EXAM" Khamenei has thrown his weight behind hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His victory in the election has been disputed by defeated opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who had stated his support for better ties with the West. The Guardian Council, Iran's top legislative body, has rejected his calls for the annulment of the election. Iran's Arab allies are quick to point out that their ties to the Islamic Republic are determined not by the president but the Supreme Leader, who has the final say in foreign affairs. Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Islamist group, considers Khamenei its spiritual guide. It was founded in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces occupying Lebanon at the time. Sheikh Naim Kassem, the group's deputy leader, this week backed the Iranian authorities' view that Western states were involved in the unrest. "These matters are controllable and therefore the Islamic Republic is solid," he said. Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, once a classmate of Khamenei in the Iranian holy city of Qom, said the country was "on the verge of emerging from its internal examination". Speaking at Friday prayers in Beirut, he urged the Iranian nation to unite "to set out in an operation to bandage its wounds by sensing the gravity of the foreign attack on it". (Writing and additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Khaled Oweis in Damascus; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Candles spell Iran during a vigil in Vancouver, British Columbia June 25, 2009. Several thousand people gathered to protest against the situation in Iran. REUTERS/Andy Clark (CANADA CONFLICT POLITICS IMAGES OF ...
