Tough Talk

The Tehran conference in support of the Palestinian Intifadeh was a resounding social success: plane hijackers munched on puff pastry, militia leaders from struggles past greeted each other warmly. It was a sunny reunion of anybody who's somebody in the region's resistance underworld. Intended to compensate for the disappointment of the recent Arab Summit in Amman -- which failed to produce violent rhetoric or come up with funds to support the Palestinians -- the Tehran summit ended up being mostly about Iran's regional ambitions.

Delegates from 34 Islamic countries assembled to hear Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demand the annihilation of Israel and cast the Palestinian struggle as an Islamic cause, a spin that lends Tehran's bid for leadership some legitimacy. In a nudge to Arab states, Khamenei pointed to the price Iran is paying: "The United States has said if Iran stops supporting the Palestinians, the U.S. will drop its hostility toward Iran. But Iran considers its support a duty."

Gazing at a giant model of Al-Aqsa Mosque made of garish yellow and red flowers, Khamenei claimed Israel exaggerated the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust to "lay the ground for its occupation." And after repeatedly declaring the liberation of southern Lebanon as a model for the Intifadeh, he concluded with a clear dictate for the role of the Lebanese militia Hizballah in the Intifadeh: "The Islamic Resistance shall be a guiding torch for other combatants."

President Mohammed Khatami attempted a more moderate stance. He gave an intellectual critique of Zionism and traced current insecurity back to the "racist nature of Israel." The President's previous talk of a referendum for Palestinians to decide their own fate suggested a quietly-growing Iranian pragmatism. But radicalism was in the air, and Khatami demanded a full economic embargo and an international court to try Israel for war crimes.

The real venom came from Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who spoke after the two Iranian leaders. "This is a historical opportunity to do away with the Zionist cancer," he intoned. "We shouldn't waste time in pointless discussion." Suggesting that Hizballah would be prepared to fight at the Palestinian level, Nasrallah's voice reached a shouting pitch: "The Zionists can get their luggage ready and go back where they come from." As Nasrallah paused for breath in mid-tirade, Iranian Speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karroubi coolly tapped his microphone and told him his time was up.

He wasn't invited, but had Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat shown up he might have been uncomfortable hearing Palestinian National Council head Salim Zaanoun call the Oslo agreements a "fiction." The buzz on the sidelines was how far contacts between the P.A. and Tehran might develop, especially if an Iranian pragmatist like Khatami wins re-election in June. This likely eventuality also received an unexpected boost. Taking the liberties his new hero status affords him, Nasrallah reportedly told Khamenei in a private meeting that Hizballah strongly favors Khatami's re-election.

As host Iran pulled out all the stops, lining the streets with soldiers in full ceremonial dress, running an impressive if only semi-functional Internet center linked to the conference site, adorning the entrances with overwrought Matisse-like Intifadeh art. Conspicuously absent were avid supporters since, unlike their leaders, the Iranian people don't see the Intifadeh as theirs to fight.