Ahmadinejad to visit Israel-Lebanon border

Western diplomats are scrambling to convince Beirut to scuttle the Iranian leader's visit next week.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is urging Lebanon to reconsider taking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a tour of their border with Israel next week, saying it could spark violence in the volatile region. But posters welcoming the Iranian president are already popping up all over Lebanon, and militant group Hezbollah is rallying supporters to give him a hero’s welcome. It’s believed Ahmadinejad will throw stones over the border fence into Israel, a symbolic act of defiance regularly practiced by Israel’s opponents. Ahmadinejad inspires hatred in the Jewish state for his constant denials of the Holocaust and his nuclear saber-rattling. Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have been high since a border skirmish in August that left five dead.