Salon.com > Hezbollah

Has the Syria threat cooled?

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Watching Syria is like looking through a kaleidoscope. The picture seems to change dramatically in response to the slightest jolt, but the components remain the same. The past week has seen lots of jolts, but no real change in the elements that make up the sad picture.

Inside Syria, the regime’s forces have started an ethnic cleansing campaign in the west intended to clear Sunnis from areas its Alawite supporters want to secure for themselves. The regime has also successfully pushed south toward the Jordanian border. In much of the rest of the country, there is lots of fighting but only marginal changes in the confrontation lines, which run through many urban areas, or between the urban centers and the countryside. Almost 7 million Syrians are now thought to need humanitarian assistance. The number could rise dramatically during the rest of the year.

Secretary Kerry’s visit to Moscow this week revived, once again, hopes for a negotiated settlement. He and the Russians agreed to try to convene a conference, even before the end of the month, that would include both the Syrian opposition and the Assad regime. The prospect of this conference will relieve President Obama of any need for a quick decision on unilateral action in Syria, since it would hardly be appropriate to preempt the conference. That is likely what both the Russians and the Americans wanted: more time.

Syria to arm Hezbollah with “game-changing” weapons

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:35:00 +0000

BEIRUT — Syria will supply "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, the chief of the Lebanese militia said Thursday, just days after Israeli airstrikes on Damascus targeted what Israel said were shipments of advanced Iranian weapons possibly bound for the group.

Any attempts to ship advanced Iranian missiles across Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon would likely draw a new Israeli response, and Thursday's warning by Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, if more than rhetoric, could signal a further escalation.

Israel has largely tried to stay out of Syria's 26-month-old conflict. It never acknowledged the airstrikes, but Israeli officials have signaled Israel's air force would strike against any shipments of strategic missiles that might be bound for Hezbollah.

Israeli officials said the Lebanese militia has tens of thousands of rockets, but that most of them are unguided. Israeli officials said the shipments targeted twice last week included precision-guided missiles.

Israel and Hezbollah fought repeatedly, including in a month-long war in 2006. During that war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets at Israel.

Syria crisis triggers diplomacy

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Syria's bloody civil war shows no sign of abating, but following two Israeli airstrikes late last week near Damascus aimed at Syrian weapons stockpiles, already fraught questions of international intervention have gained even greater weight and urgency as Assad's regime has called Israeli actions "an act of war." Israel, meanwhile, stressed on Monday that the attacks were not aimed at Syria's beleaguered regime, but were intended solely to stop Iranian-supplied weapons reaching Hezbollah (even though the strikes reportedly killed 15 members of Assad's elite Republican guard). The geopolitical fallout is complicated.

U.S. and Russia meet in an attempt at framing a political solution:

Hezbollah targets Israeli tourists

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:40:00 +0000

A rare inside look at Hezbollah during a recent terror trial in Cyprus portrayed a militant group with the prowess of an intelligence service: meticulous overseas reconnaissance, Western operatives with elaborate covers, training at secret bases where recruits and instructors wear masks for maximum security.

And the conviction last month of a confessed Hezbollah operative for doing terrorist surveillance of Israeli tourists has heated up a debate that continues to divide the West: Whether the European Union, like the United States and Israel, should designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

In a report to be published by a West Point think tank next week, a former U.S. counterterror official argues that the Cyprus case and an attack on Israelis in Bulgaria last year show that Hezbollah has returned to aggressive operations on European soil. Western counterterror agencies largely share that analysis, which has spurred a proposal by Britain for the European Union to designate Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah: Drone’s not ours

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:59:00 +0000

BEIRUT (AP) — The militant Lebanese Hezbollah group has denied sending a drone that was shot down by Israel.

The group's Al Manar TV made the announcement Thursday through a one line statement flashed as an urgent news bar on its screen.

An Israeli warplane shot down a drone approaching the country coast from Lebanon, smashing its wreckage into the sea off the northern city of Haifa Thursday.

Suspicion immediately fell on Hezbollah, which sent a similar drone in October and vowed to send more.

Israel shoots down Hezbollah drone

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:07:00 +0000

JERUSALEM — Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached the country's northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

The incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed the infiltration attempt with "utmost gravity."

"We will continue to do everything necessary in order to protect the security of the citizens of Israel," he said.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.

Lerner said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was "enemy," and then an F-16 warplane shot it down.

The drone was flying at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) and was downed roughly five miles (eight kilometers) off the Israeli coast near the northern city of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.

Kidnapping is big business in Lebanon

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:42:00 +0000

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Ibrahim’s relatives are rich and powerful. But the young Lebanese taxi driver was reluctant to go into the family business when he found himself struggling to make ends meet. His family is one of the country’s largest Shiite clans, and their business is kidnapping.

"Of course I don't want to do this," Ibrahim said of his new part-time job driving for his cousins, both professional kidnappers. "But [the victims] are never harmed and I have to feed my family."

Kidnapping for ransom is one of the few forms of economic activity to flourish here as the civil war in neighboring Syria cripples the tourism industry and erodes the authority of the state.

Last week a 12-year-old boy became the latest victim.

Syria and Iran threaten retaliation for Israeli airstrike

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:54:00 +0000

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria and Iran have threatened to retaliate for an Israeli air raid near the capital Damascus.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali says Damascus has "the option and the surprise to retaliate." He said he cannot predict when the retaliation will be, saying it is up to relevant authorities to prepare for it.

In Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Thursday as saying the raid on Syria will have significant implications for the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

U.S. officials said Israel launched a rare airstrike inside Syria on Wednesday, targeting a convoy believed to contain anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah. The Syrian military denied the existence of any such shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit.

Is Venezuela harboring Hezbollah?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:27:00 +0000

Editor's note: This is part of a series on the alleged spread of Islamic terror cells in America's "backyard." See part one here.

LIMA, Peru — Is Venezuela providing operational support to Islamic terrorists?

That deadly serious question is increasingly troubling foreign policy and security experts as the South American country and Iran — which funds Hezbollah — move ever closer.

Despite deep cultural differences, a shared antagonism toward the US has drawn Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, into an unlikely political friendship in recent years.

"Iran is an example of struggle, resistance, dignity, revolution, strong faith," Chavez said during one early visit to Tehran.

Are Mexican cartels in cahoots with Hezbollah?

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Middle Eastern terrorist group Hezbollah may be collaborating with Mexican drug cartels, and even using their trafficking routes to infiltrate the US, according to at least one US lawmaker. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from North Carolina, says there's evidence that the Lebanese militants have been working with drug cartels to sneak across the border since as far back as 2009—and she claims that the federal government is choosing to ignore the problem. "I don't have a lot of faith in the Department of Homeland Security," says Myrick. "They should be looking at these groups in Mexico much more closely." Other recent links have been drawn between drug gangs and Islamic terrorists: about a year ago, an alleged Iranian operative plotted to assassinate a Saudi diplomat with gunmen from the Zetas cartel—except the gunmen were actually undercover FBI agents. Now, Myrick has requested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) create a task force to monitor Islamic extremist groups in Mexico. But DHS secretary Janet Napolitano remains adamant that current intelligence resources are adequate, and denies there's any credible evidence of Middle Eastern terrorists operating south of the border. More than 200,000 people of Lebanese and Syrian descent live in Mexico, but US officials have not identified any ties to Hezbollah.

Television show “Homeland” irks Lebanese and Israelis

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:46:00 +0000

BEIRUT (AP) -- Militants carrying assault weapons clear the area around a street, shouting in Arabic for people to get out of the way. A jeep pulls up: The world's No. 1 jihadi has arrived for a meeting with top Hezbollah commanders. On rooftops, U.S. snipers crouch unseen, the kingpin in their crosshairs at last.

The scene, from a recent episode of the hit U.S. Showtime series "Homeland," is supposed to be Beirut. But it is really in Israel, a country similar enough in some areas to stand in for Lebanon, yet a world away in most other respects.

The show about Arab terrorists and American turncoats has inadvertently become a tale of two cities. Some Beirutis are angry because the depiction of their city as swarming with militiamen is misleading and because they see Israel as the enemy. And in Israel, some are peeved that Haifa and even Tel Aviv - a self-styled nightlife capital and high-tech hub - apparently appear, to outsiders at least, to be Middle Eastern after all.

Lebanese Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud told The Associated Press on Thursday that he's so upset about the portrayal of Beirut that he's considering a lawsuit.

"The information minister is studying media laws to see what can be done," he said.

“Homeland”: In Carrie we (should) trust

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:00:00 +0000

We’re two episodes into the season, and already the major narrative threads for each of the main characters have revealed themselves: For Brody, they regard how long he can conceal the truth of his allegiance to Abu Nazir, and the depth of his mental damage. And, for Carrie, how long the CIA will leave her out in the cold because they believe her to be too mentally unstable. If tonight’s episode is any indication, the answer is, not long.

The title of this episode is called “Beirut Is Back,” but it could have just as easily be called, “Carrie Is Back” because we see her on top of her game, lucid, sharp and ready to get the job done. We’re in Beirut as the morning call to prayer sounds throughout the city. In a mosque, women pray, and among them, Fatima Ali, Carrie’s CIA asset, who is the first wife of Hezbolla district commander Abbas Ali. Outside of the mosque, Carrie is there to greet Fatima who wants to know if the $5 million reward for Abu Nazir is still on offer — there are bills to pay, you know. She also has other requests: passage to the United States, which is always an interesting prospect, this idea of the United States as a promised land, even in this day and age. Carrie assures her safety, so Ali gives up the goods: Nazir is meeting her husband the next day in Beirut. The CIA can kill them both, Ali says blithely. Marriage is complicated.

NYPD must spy on all Muslims to protect us from Iranian photographers

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:22:00 +0000

The NYPD is less a "police department" than a secretive and unaccountable international intelligence-gathering organization with a large minority-frisking division and the firepower of a mid-sized army. Lately they have been facing a bit of criticism for their style of intelligence-gathering, which seems to be done with more gusto than concern for civil liberties or... accuracy. Sometimes the NYPD's muscular-but-stupid approach to spying gets them in trouble with the FBI. And when the organization that fights terror by recruiting shady weirdos to try to trick random Muslims into saying "jihad" into tape recorders says your practices are counterproductive and out of line, they are probably pretty counterproductive and out of line.

Hezbollah fights for relevance

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Since the heady first days of the Arab Spring, it has become increasingly obvious that things are not quite as they seem. Many of the idealistic, youth driven uprisings have been manipulated by great powers to serve a much bigger regional game.

The age old rivalry between Russia and the West is being played out in the Middle-East, pitting the largely Sunni Muslim Arab states against Russia’s ally in the region- Iran. An important player bridging the gap between Shi’ite Iran and the Arab Sunnis is Lebanon’s Shi’ite resistance movement known as Hezbollah (Party of God.)

Hezbollah has enjoyed enormous popularity across the entire region, perceived by many as the champions of the Arab world, successfully standing up to the bully in the playground, Israel. There was a time when the portrait of Hassan Nasrallah hung on the walls of homes and cafes from Baghdad to Casablanca. Yet, following a relatively cool reception of Nasrallah’s speech on the 16^th of February , one got the distinct impression that the Lebanese resistance leader may not enjoy the same popularity he once did with the Arab masses.