Yaroun, on Lebanon’s border with Israel, has long been at the center of Iran’s four-decade conflict with Israel. Its ridges and valleys have been key in several wars, and photographs of its martyrs line most streets, along with the ever-present yellow banners of its strongest player, Hezbollah. Hadi Matar’s parents and extended family live here, among fiercely conservative, affluent neighborhoods. The newly built palaces tower from the hilltops. Roads are being cleared and road workers are busy with maintenance work, a rare occurrence in a country in economic freefall. But Yaroun clearly takes care of his own. And so it was when the Guardian visited the mayor’s office in the city centre, seeking guidance for Matar’s parents. “I’m not going to talk about that,” the mayor snapped. “No one else here will talk to you about it and I advise you to leave now.” A cleric in a white headdress was just as indifferent, if kinder. “What’s your name and why are you here?” asked. “Go ask near the hairdresser.” Murals in the city of Yaroun. Photo: Aziz Taher/Reuters Matar, who was born in the US, is believed to have spent several summers in Yaroun from his late teens onwards. His allegiance has been the subject of speculation, both in Lebanon and in New York, where he was accused of attempting to assassinate Rushdie. But his driver’s license offers some clues. He used a fake first and last name on his official document, Hassan Mughniyah, a portmanteau of Hezbollah’s leader and most famous commander. Whether Hezbollah or Iran played a role in directing Mattar to stab the author, or whether he felt authorized to do so by the 33-year-old fatwa, is a matter of contention across the region. Iran’s state media on Monday denied any direct link but claimed Rushdie deserved to be attacked because of his book The Satanic Verses, which some say described the prophet Muhammad in blasphemous terms. Hezbollah-affiliated media outlets have also pulled no punches, describing the attack variously as a “stab in the throat” of the author or “revenge of God.” But on a sultry summer afternoon, nothing moved in Yaroun and few people took to the streets. Those with their heads bowed solemnly past murals paying tribute to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s two most recent supreme leaders, Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued the fatwa against Rushdie and Ali Khamenei, who approved it. Assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani also features prominently, as does Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by the CIA and Mossad in Damascus 14 years ago. All five men were on the flight deck of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards efforts in southern Lebanon and across the region. The prominent presence of their murals in the city center spoke to their importance to a population that wanted little to do with the aftermath of the Rushdie attack. “The mother [of Hadi] he told me he wanted not to talk to the media and asked me to keep them away,” an aide to the mayor said ahead of the Guardian’s visit to Yaroun on Monday.
