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It really isn't odd that this relationship exists. Iran created Hizb'Allah. There's no daylight between them. The core of the outfit within Lebanon was entirely made up of Pasaradan following Khomeini's overthrow of the Shah. They fund them, they guide them, and Nasrallah is a protege of the senior Ayatullah in Iran. It would be more surprising if the Pasaradan were NOT helping out, to be blunt about it. They of course don't want to make a big deal out of it because they don't want Israel coming after the parent state. http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/08/10/israel_oks_deeper_push_in_lebanon/Israel's Channel 10 television reported that members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard were found among Hezbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Channel 10 quoted diplomatic sources as saying the unidentified number of Iranians were identified by papers found on their bodies. The report gave no other details.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard members are in Lebanon serving as advisers and trainers for Hezbollah, the Israeli government has said. Israel and the United States have pointed to the Iranians' presence in Lebanon as evidence of Iran's backing of the Hezbollah organization....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/06/wmid306.xmlThe alleged involvement of the LAF in an attack against Israeli forces complicates the proposed US mission, announced on Thursday, to train and equip the organisation. Gen John Abizaid, a senior US Army commander, told senators the same day that the LAF needed a "significant upgrade" because "it will never work for Lebanon if, over time, Hezbollah has a greater military capacity than the Lebanese armed forces".
Four crew members from the corvette INS Hanit were killed when the sea-skimming C-802 evaded its defensive systems and struck its helicopter deck, igniting fuel tanks. The Israeli source said the sophistication of the attack also indicated the involvement of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20074368-31477,00.html"As the Government of Lebanon has confirmed, the Lebanese Armed Forces has thus not been authorised to prevent further movement of the ammunitions, which had been a common practice for more than 15 years," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a letter to the Security Council in April. "Hezbollah publicly confirmed that the arms were destined for the group."
It's this uninterrupted flow of weapons, mostly made in Iran, under the nose of the Lebanese Government, that has allowed Hezbollah to stockpile some 12,000 Katyusha rockets. Over the past 29 days of conflict, Hezbollah has fired more than 3000 rockets into Israel. ... US officials believe Iran finances Hezbollah to the tune of $US100 million ($132million) a year, while the Iran Revolutionary Guard trains its fighters. ... Iran is bringing in to Lebanon sophisticated weaponry," says Lebanon's Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt. "The Iranians are actually experimenting with different kinds of missiles in Lebanon by shooting them at the Israelis. Iran is using this violence to test certain of Israel's abilities,"
he adds. Jumblatt heads Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and is regarded as the most prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese politician.
And he adds of Syria's role: "Syria will likely try to tell the world, 'Look, see, since we left Lebanon, the Cedar Revolution and the forces in Lebanon that got our military out through popular support, those forces are not able to control Lebanon. While we were in control, Lebanon was a safe place. Now it's not. We need to come back in," he predicts.
"I would not be surprised if they even try to wiggle their way into a deal by convincing the Americans that Syrian influence in Lebanon will stabilise the region." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/16/wleb216.xmlIran was thrust to the forefront of widening conflict in the Middle East last night when Israel and America blamed it for supplying the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with sophisticated weapons to fight a proxy war against the Jewish state.
Israeli intelligence claimed that 100 Iranian Revolutionary Guards were in Lebanon helping Hezbollah, and that their weapons would enable Hezbollah to strike with devastating force at Israel's armed forces and civilian population as far south as the capital, Tel Aviv.
http://www.nysun.com/article/36557
JERUSALEM — The bodies of Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers killed by the Israeli army in Lebanon have been transported to Syria and flown to Tehran, senior Lebanese political sources said.
Israeli and Egyptian security officials confirmed the news, which follows a report that first appeared in The New York Sun, that Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers.
The Lebanese sources said between six and nine dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were brought in trucks last week into Syria for a flight back to Iran. They said the bodies were transported along with the tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians fleeing to Syria.
Since Israel began its military campaign in Lebanon two weeks ago following a Hezbollah attack on the Jewish state in which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, Syrian authorities have reported that more than 140,000 Lebanese have entered their country, mostly through open areas along the Syria-Lebanon border.
Israeli officials said Iranian Revolutionary Guards directed the firing two weeks ago of a radar-guided C–802 missile that hit an Israeli navy vessel off the coast of Lebanon, killing four soldiers. Israel says Iran acquired the missile from China.
The following are not bad overviews of the relationship between 'parents' Iran and the Revolutionary Guard, and 'child' Hizb'Allah: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hizballah.htmHizballah is an Islamic movement founded after the Israeli military seizure of Lebanon in 1982, which resulted in the formation of Islamic resistance units committed to the liberation of the occupied territories and the ejection of Israeli forces. Hizbollah was established in 1982 during the Lebanon War when a group of Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims declared themselves to be the "Party of God" (Hizb Allah, which is clear in Hizbollah but progressively less so in Hizbollah / Hizbullah / Hezbollah). Upon the realization that the IDF was entrenching itself in south Lebanon, and influenced and assisted by 1,500 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, Hizballah cells began developing with the immediate desire to resist the Israeli invasion. Hizbollah began establishing its base in Lebanon in 1982 and has expanded and strengthened ever since, primarily due to its wave of suicide bombings and foreign support by Iran and Syria....Hizballah was established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who came to Lebanon during the 1982 "Peace for Galilee" war, as part of the policy of exporting the Islamic revolution. It receives substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and Syria. Published reports that Iran provides hundreds million dollars of aid annually are probably exaggerated. Iran probably provides financial assistance and military assistance worth about $25-50 million.
Hizballah is closely allied with, and often directed by, Iran but has the capability and willingness to act independently. Closely allied with, and often directed by Iran, it may have conducted operations that were not approved by Tehran. Though Hizballah does not share the Syrian regime’s secular orientation, the group has been a strong ally in helping Syria advance its political objectives in the region. ......
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/iran/qods.htmForeign Operations
The foreign operations by the Guardians, which also encompass the activities of Hizballah and Islamic Jihad – are usually carried out through the Committee on Foreign Intelligence Abroad and the Committee on Implementation of Actions Abroad. As with agents of Ministry of Intelligence, Pasdaran personnel operate through front companies and non-governmental organizations, employees or officials of trading companies, banks, cultural centers or as representatives of the Foundation of the Oppressed and Dispossessed (Bonyade-e- Mostafazan), or the Martyrs Foundation.
The Qods (Jerusalem) Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is responsible for extraterritorial operations, including terrorist operations. A primary focus for the Qods Force is training Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups. Currently, the Qods Force conducts training activities in Iran and in Sudan. The Qods Force is also responsible for gathering information required for targeting and attack planning. The Pasdaran has contacts with underground movements in the Gulf region, and Pasdaran members are assigned to Iranian diplomatic missions, where, in the course of routine intelligence activities they monitor dissidents. Pasdaran influence has been particularly important in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
The largest branch of Pasdaran foreign operations consists of approximately 12,000 Arabic speaking Iranians, Afghans, Iraqis, Lebanese shi’ites and North Africans who trained in Iran or received training in Afghanistan during the Afghan war years. Presently these foreign operatives receive training in Iran, Sudan and Lebanon, and include the Hizballah <"Party of Allah"> intelligence, logistics and operational units in Lebanon . The second largest Pasdaran foreign operations relates to the Kurds (particularly Iraqi Kurds), while the third largest relates to the Kashmiri’s, the Balouchi’s and the Afghans. The Pasdaran has also supported the establishment of Hizballah branches in Lebanon, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan and Palestine, and the Islamic Jihad in many other Moslem countries including Egypt, Turkey, Chechnya and in Caucasia. Hizballah has been implicated in the counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and European currencies, both to finance its operations and to disrupt Western economies by impairing international trade and tourism. ....Hizballah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qasim appeared to confirm the importance of Iran to his organization during a late-July ceremony in the town of Tulin, when he said "We must stand side by side against the Israeli enemy, because Lebanon's strength is part of Syria's strength, and Iran's support and support for Palestine are an honor for us." ...http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060814/ts_csm/oiranx_1"It's a very strong, very solid organic relationship – similar to the relationship between Israel and the US," says Saad-Ghorayeb. In the year that Mr. Ahmadinejad has been president of Iran, those ties have consolidated. But there are limits.
"Iran does not dictate military strategy or policy to Hizbullah, as is commonly seen in the West," says Saad-Ghorayeb. "For example, the US supports Israel, no one says that the US tells Israel what to do. It's the same for Hizbullah and Iran."
Hizbullah maintains closest ties to Iran's clerical establishment, and looks to Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the Shiite group's spiritual reference, or ~~I~~marja~~/I~~. It believes in the concept of ~~I~~velayat e-faqih~~/I~~, rule by a supreme jurisprudent as a pillar of Iran's Islamic regime. Nasrallah is Ayatollah Khamenei's personal representative to Lebanon – a rare and telling link. A good overview of recent regional history here: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?021014fa_fact4Hezbollah has an annual budget of more than a hundred million dollars, which is supplied by the Iranian government directly and by a complex system of finance cells scattered around the world, from Bangkok and Paraguay to Michigan and North Carolina. Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah operates successfully in public spheres that are closed off to most terrorist groups. It runs a vast and effective social-services network. It publishes newspapers and magazines and owns a satellite television station that is said to be watched by ten million people a day in the Middle East and Europe. The station, called Al Manar, or the Lighthouse, broadcasts anti-American programming, but its main purpose is to encourage Palestinians to become suicide bombers.
Along with this public work, Hezbollah continues to increase its terrorist and guerrilla capabilities. Magnus Ranstorp says that Hezbollah can be active on four tracks simultaneously—the political, the social, the guerrilla, and the terrorist—because its leaders are "masters of long-term strategic subversion." The organization's Special Security Apparatus operates in Europe, North and South America, and East Asia. According to both American and Israeli intelligence officials, the group maintains floating "day camps" for terrorist training throughout the Bekaa Valley; many of the camps are said to be just outside Baalbek. In some of them, the instructors are supplied by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran's Ministry of Intelligence. In the past twenty years, terrorists from such disparate organizations as the Basque separatist group ETA, the Red Brigades, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and the Irish Republican Army have been trained in these camps.More recent history: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/06/wmid206.xmlAn 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".
In a potentially ominous development that could lead to a further escalation of the conflict, the theocratic regime also gave implicit authorisation for the Lebanese guerilla group to strike Tel Aviv with the Zelzal-2 missiles, manufactured in Teheran.
Israeli forces have been desperately attempting to destroy Hezbollah's longer-range arsenal, including the Zelzal missiles and launchers, before the weapons are deployed.
Intelligence officials believe one reason why Hezbollah has not yet fired a Zelzal missile into Israel is that it needs a green light from Iran and Syria before any action that could turn the conflict into full-scale regional war.
According to Western and Israeli intelligence agencies, Zelzals and Fajr-3s - with a range of 25 miles - are manufactured by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organisation at its Shahid Bagheri Industries facility in Teheran. Hezbollah also has a small number of Fajr-5s, with a range of 45 miles.
Nasrallah said the group had about 12,000 rockets and missiles when hostilities began on July 12. "We can take him at his word," said David Schenker, a former Pentagon official now at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy.
More than 10,000 are believed to be Katyusha rockets with a range of just 12 miles, whose use against Israeli civilians would be prevented if Israel can carve a deep enough buffer zone in southern Lebanon. About 120 Fajr-3s and Fajr-5s are also thought to have been supplied, mostly by air to Damascus, from where they were taken overland to southern Lebanon.
A senior Israeli security source said most of the weapons were funnelled through Camp Zabadani, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base in Syria located close to the Lebanese border....Israel believes that the IRGC, formed to safeguard the 1979 Islamic revolution and counterbalance the regular Iranian army, has dispatched troops to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has promised unstinting support for Hezbollah. "The main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime," he said last week....And then, there's this side dish, which, if true, is quite fascinating all by itself: http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2006/august/08_14_1.html |
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