A useful overview of Hizballah’s ties with Iran: “Hezbollah’s hate, made in Iran,” from the National Post, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
For the last two weeks, innocent Israelis have been killed in missile barrages from Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorists and militia. On the other side of the border, more than 300 Lebanese civilians have been accidentally killed by Israeli bombs aimed at Hezbollah assets. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers have engaged with Hezbollah gunmen in ground combat, with both sides taking heavy casualties. All this loss of life was caused by Hezbollah’s decision to stage an unprovoked act of war on uncontested, sovereign Israeli soil two weeks ago.
But why did Hezbollah do it? Since the government of Lebanon and most ordinary Lebanese people plainly didn’t want this war, who did? Who is pulling Hezbollah’s strings?
HERE ARE A FEW CLUES:
– The Shiite terrorist group receives US$120-million in annual financing from Tehran, where it operates an office on a central downtown street.
– Hezbollah was created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Several hundred IRGC officers are operating in Lebanon to this day, assisting Hezbollah’s war effort.
– According to Western intelligence sources, over the last six months, the IRGC has been teaching Hezbollah how to operate its massive stock of rockets, many of which are from Iran. These include Zelzal missiles, which can reach Tel Aviv and beyond.
– On Wednesday, more than 60 Iranian self-declared suicide bombers, bedecked in Hezbollah paraphernalia, set off from Tehran in a “holy war” against Israeli forces in Lebanon.
– Yesterday, a Kuwaiti newspaper broke the news that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is travelling to Damascus for secret meetings with Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani.
– During fighting in Lebanon, Israeli soldiers have seized weaponry marked with the logo of Iranian military manufacturers, such as the grenade launcher featured in the photo below.
– Earlier this month, Iranian troops assisted Hezbollah in firing a C-802 radar-guided missile at an Israeli warship, killing several crew members and nearly sinking the craft.
– Iranian officials met with Hezbollah leaders in Damascus on July 12, the very day this conflict started and — as David Frum has noted on these pages — the same day Western nations announced a threat of economic sanctions against Iran if the Islamic Republic refused to curtail its nuclear program.
Read it all.