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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| counterterrorismblog: missed facts on the Hezbollah/Iran/Syria-Israel war |
| 2006-07-20 |
| By Olivier Guitta In the same vein of my latest July 13 post, here is some additional info that has been overlooked: 1- Over two weeks ago, Hezbollah's leader Nasrallah told opposition leader Walid Jumblatt: "The stability of Lebanon is vital for us. We have to preserve the touristic season and continue with a dialogue between the different political parties." 2- After the Syrian Army left last year, not only did Syrians still place officials in the Lebanese Army, Secret Service, and high in the administration (for more on that, please read my piece in the "Daily Standard" here), but also Hezbollah did the same. 3- Nasrallah admitted that it took five months of preparation to plan this operation. 5 Months - not spur of the moment help to Hamas! 4- As Bill Roggio pointed out, linking to the English portion of an Asharq Al-Awsat article: "The source said more than 3,000 Hezbollah members have undergone training in Iran, which included guerrilla warfare, firing missiles and artillery, operating unmanned drones, marine warfare and conventional war operations. He said they have also trained 50 pilots for the past two years. According to the source, Hezbollah currently possesses four types of surface-to-surface missiles, some of which extend to a distance of 150 kilometers." But the Arabic version of the piece is, as usual, much more detailed: the 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been stationed in Lebanon since 1990. They have married Shia Lebanese women, mostly "Hezbollah widows" and have changed their names to Lebanese names. They installed over twenty fixed rocket bases in the Bekaa Valley and provided Hezbollah with mobile bases to launch rockets. Furthermore a secret elite force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard composed of about twenty men is watching the Israel Defense Forces' every move with very sophisticated high-tech material and then deciding on the targets to hit inside Israel. 5- Hezbollah is purposefully using Christian, Sunni and Druze villages to fire rockets at Israel. In fact, they count on Israel retaliating in these places, killing non-Shia civilians who then in turn might become hostile to Israel and side with Hezbollah. 6- Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri's son and leader of the majority bloc in Parliament, called for judging the people who have pushed Lebanon into this unwanted war, i.e. Hezbollah. 7- Saudi Arabia's very unusual condemnation of Hezbollah can be also explained by the fact that Hariri holds dual citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi; that Rafik Hariri was extremely close to the Saudi royal family; and that one of the most important Lebanese communities in the world is in Saudi Arabia, numbering around 150,000. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #2 Added site to favorites... :) |
| Posted by: Inspector Clueso 2006-07-20 11:52 |
| #1 *Very* good background piece - I'll check out his site for more. Thanks, 3dc. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-20 07:19 |