Hezbollah conducted a massive military exercise in southern Lebanon this week, reportedly deploying 10,000 gunmen over three days in a war-game scenario and simulating the Shiite group’s role as an Iranian proxy in a potential war between Israel and Iran.Reports of the operation surfaced in the Hebrew media on Thursday, based on an article in the Egyptian state paper al-Gomhuria, which reported that the exercises were personally supervised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and by “top officials” from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.According to the reports, Hezbollah simulated raids into northern Israeli territory and clashes in villages along the southern Lebanese border with Israel, which have been reinforced against a potential conflict.
The report also stated that some 2,000 Hezbollah fighters were currently being trained by Revolutionary Guard operatives in Iran.
Analysts believe that Hezbollah will be called upon by Tehran to open a front against Israel should Jerusalem order a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The organization, considered a terror group by Israel and the US, has a de facto hold over much of southern Lebanon. While the Shiite group can shoot rockets into the north of Israel and has made covert forays dozens of meters into Israeli territory, it has not launched large-scale raids into the country.
Syria is capable of destroying Israel’s nuclear facilities with 20 missiles, Syria’s ambassador to Jordan, Bahjat Suleiman, told a visiting delegation on Wednesday, pro-Assad news sources reported.
Suleiman, a loyalist of Syrian President Bashar Assad, also told a visiting delegation of Baath Party members and Arab nationalists that Riyad Hijab, the Syrian prime minister who defected to Jordan earlier this month, had received $20 million for his “betrayal.”
He said that Syria was capable of destroying the Israeli installations “if attacked,” despite the grave losses it would incur as a result.
Syria has acquired surface-to-surface missiles from Russia and North Korea which cover most of the territory of Israel. In September 2007, the Israeli Air Force reportedly destroyed a nuclear reactor Syria was developing with the assistance of North Korea, although Israel never officially claimed responsibility for the strike.
Iran has installed many more uranium enrichment machines in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources said on Thursday, potentially paving the way for a significant expansion of work the West fears is ultimately aimed at making nuclear bombs.Several sources said Iran had put in place additional enrichment centrifuges in its Fordow facility, buried deep inside a mountain to protect it against any enemy strikes.One source suggested it involved hundreds of machines.
If confirmed in a report expected next week from the UN atomic watchdog, the development is likely to be seen as a sign of Iran’s continued defiance of international demands to curb its nuclear programIn a possible sign of further Iranian defiance in the face of such pressure, several sources said Iran had put in place additional enrichment centrifuges in the Fordow facility, buried deep inside a mountain to protect it against enemy strikes.
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