A Cigarette on the Border

Smoking cigarettes with the Lebanese border patrol as the Ayatollah watches

Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

I was on edge as we stood on the abandoned train tracks. It was quiet, but there were police-looking cars parked nearby. We didn’t know which side it was: Lebanese forces or Hezbollah.

On the street we had turned off moments before, a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei gazed down upon me. So did images of “martyrs” – Hezbollah members killed by Israel – while flags with the machine-gun toting Hezbollah logo fluttered in the wind.

Now, a man in military garb walked out of the old train station. He shook hands with my guide, Ramzi, and spoke to him in Arabic.

“They’re border patrol,” Ramzi said. “He’s asking if you want to come inside.”