Friday, August 18, 2006

Iranian backing of Hezbollah

Iran is funding Hezbollah reconstruction to an unlimited amount. Note that they are funding Hezbollah in particular, not the Lebanese government.

Nehme Y Tohme, a member of Parliament from the anti-Syrian reform bloc and the country's minister for the displaced, said he had been told by Hezbollah officials that when the shooting stopped, Iran would provide Hezbollah with an "unlimited budget" for reconstruction.
In his 'victory speech', Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, offered money for "decent and suitable furniture" and a year's rent on a house to any Lebanese who lost his home in the month-long war. "Completing the victory," he said, "can come with reconstruction."

Completing the victory? I would expect Hezbollah reconstruction crews to integrate ammunition and supply depots and bunkers in any new construction, as such were key to their recent neutralization of Israeli military doctrine. Such funds transfers would also provide a means of laundering money with which Hezbollah could then use to recompose its missile arsenal, no doubt with am aim toward longer-range missiles.

It's also worth recalling Nasrallah's earlier threat:

Hizbullah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, warned in a taped television speech that rockets would be fired at Tel Aviv if the centre of Beirut was attacked. "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity ... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said.

Such a threat would be lack credibility if he were merely relying on Katyusha rockets and even Fajr-5 missiles, as they lack sufficient range (100 km in the case of the Fajr-5), given that Tel Aviv is approximately 120 km south of the border with Lebanon. This implies Hezbollah possessed the Iranian-made Zilzal-2. This was later confirmed by an Iranian official.

An Iranian MP who helped found the Hezbollah terrorist group has confirmed for the first time that Teheran has equipped it with long-range missiles capable of hitting "any target in Israel"...
"There are countries that have weapons but don't have the courage to use them," said Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur, Iran's former ambassador to Damascus, who holds a government-appointed post as secretary-general to the Palestinian uprising (intifada) conference.
"Hezbollah's arsenal not only includes Katyusha missiles, but also Zelzal-2 missiles, which could hit targets as far as 160 miles (250 km), leaving no spot in Israel unreachable."

Veiled encouragement for Hezbollah to use the Zilzal-2, as well as a connection to Syria. If the claimed range is accurate, this also means that a Tel Aviv strike would be feasible from north of the Litani River.

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