The new Power of Hezbollah

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The Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah has benefited from the war in Syria. As the spearhead of Iran, you could upgrade military enormously. Through their presence in Syria is also a threat to Israel.

A Hezbollah fighters in the Lebanese border area with Israel

The message it had in it. For more than five days, the Lebanese military is fighting against the terrorist organization “Islamic state” (IS), whose militias have penetrated in part in the Syrian Qalamoun mountains. Whose foothills extend into the Lebanon. The jihadists of the IS are well equipped. Therefore, the Lebanese military will fight against them in loose Alliance with the two parties: Hezbollah and Iran.

With the United forces of the Shiite-dominated allies were able to push the Sunni extremists now. This was announced by the Deputy Iranian foreign Minister, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, during a visit to Beirut: “The Lebanese military, with the support of the resistance movement Hezbollah and the (Iranian, Anm. d. Red.) The Nation registered some significant victories over the IS-terrorists.”

A long-unthinkable Alliance

The Lebanese military and Hezbollah: such An Alliance was unthinkable until now. The national army of Lebanon in Association with a paramilitary militia, which has its roots in Iran, and Tehran is supported. The Lebanese military as a state Institution in Alliance with a non-state actor that operates according to the political scientist Eitan Azani “as a state within a state”. “The independent policy of the Lebanese organization created conflicts and tensions in their relationship to the Lebanese state,” said Azani, in his book on Hezbollah. “One of the main points of conflict between the movement and the government was in the resistance policy of the Hezbollah, the wronged, in many cases, the interests of the government in every respect to stand and so the processes, the tried this to initiate.”

In Position: Jeeps of Hezbollah in the fight against the “Islamic state”

This from the 90s resulting voltage persists until today. The Hezbollah is an independent factor in Lebanese politics. It is represented since 1992 in the Lebanese national Assembly, in its military part, but a largely independent policy. In 2006, she fought with the Israeli military, a battle that ended in a about a month on the ongoing war.

The split Lebanon

Since then, Lebanon is divided politically. On one side are the Sunnis, Druze and parts of the Lebanese Christians, on the other, the Shiites and the parts of the Christian population. “The coalition of Maronites, Sunnis and Druze has a concern,” writes the Turkish Analyst Timur Goksel, “Hezbollah to stop to use their weapons, and their political weight to change the political and economic Balance of denominational principles-based system of Lebanon.”

That the Lebanese army is working with this is hardly to be controlled Partner is now military and also Iran as a Partner to understand, in Israel for considerable concern. The Hezbollah, so the fear, could use the Alliance with the Lebanese army on their own against Israel Agenda is still massive to be enforced as already.

A Hezbollah fighters crossed the border to Israel: excerpt from a Haaretz released a Video of the Israeli military

The Topics Threats

Months ago, Hezbollah leader Hasran Nasrallah met with massive threats against Israel. Israel should attack Lebanon or Syria, he explained in June of this year, would provide “hundreds of thousands” of Arab and Muslim fighters, to strike back. In the case of such an attack, it was open “if this struggle is limited to Lebanon and Israel or Syria and Israel,” he explained.

In mid-August, he took up the subject again. In the case of an attack, Israel would face an opponent that “a hundred times” is stronger than in previous conflicts. At the same time, he threatened that Hezbollah could attack Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona. Prior to that, he had already called a huge ammonia Tank in Haifa as a possible target. The Explosion would have devastating consequences for the city and its population. The triggered in Israel, a discussion of the relocation of the tank in a safe area.

It is becoming clear that Hezbollah, together with Iran, one of the big winners of the war in Syria. The topics of self-conscious word to a hundred times the strength of the organization may be plated in Parts, suggests that the Hezbollah of its function as a military Arm to benefit Iran tremendously. First of all, Iran had the goal of Syria is to lose its most important and at the same time, only state ally in the Region. In the course of the war years, but a new target emerged: a continuous land route across Iraq and Syria, to Lebanon.

“A stone’s throw from the border”

That is, at the same time: Iran’s area of influence extends directly to Israel. “Hezbollah is only a stone’s throw away from the Israeli border,” the outline of the head of the Israeli military intelligence service, Herzl Halevi, the new Situation. So Hezbollah gets a whole new weight. Since it is also in Syria present and will remain so for the foreseeable future, it is also a geostrategic perspective, Israel is a very new threat quality: you could now. not alone any more from the Lebanese South, but also from the Syrian Western border from attack Thus, the length of the Front would be almost doubled.

An attack is currently unlikely given that a third of Hezbollah fighters engaged in the Syrian war zone. In addition, the organization has suffered a bitter personal and financial losses. In the long term, but the threat of war.

Ubiquitous escalation: war in Syria, here is a picture of Rakka

Israel is bracing itself

Israel pulls out of the new situation a number of consequences. To a vote with the requirement not to differentiate between Hezbollah and the regular Lebanese army. “The Lebanese army is a wing of Hezbollah,” says Mordechai Kedar from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Ramat Gan, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. The newspaper also points out that arms deliveries from Western countries – they are called France and the United States to the Lebanese army in the hands of Hezbollah land.

In addition, Israel has admitted for the first time, to have weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, attacked, and “dozens of times” during the past few years, as the newspaper Haaretz quoted an unnamed Israeli commander. The escalation to a war in the Middle East is a “trivial” phenomenon, quoted in Haaretz, Amir Eshel, the commander of the Israeli air force. Such an escalation they wanted to avoid. The army, he added, could not win such a war, although within a few hours. But it is so well developed that they can it “reduce dramatically”.