The new campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon is just one part of Israel’s sweeping offensive against Iran and its proxy militias like Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
On Friday, on the outskirts of Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, the leaders of Hezbollah filed into their bunker 20 metres underground to meet with the Iranian general responsible for arming and directing them.. Hezbollah is the world’s most heavily armed non-state military force, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.Iran has spent billions of dollars over decades helping arm it with an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles.
The Hezbollah leaders wanted Iran to free them to unleash greater violence, deeper into Israel. In the presence of their storied leader, Hassan Nasrallah, they would put their case directly to Iran’s General Abbas Nilforushan, the deputy commander for operations of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. But the “party of God” leadership was prematurely called to higher consultation, taking the Iranian general with them.
For all its significance, it’s just one piece of a much bigger picture. Israel’s move against Nasrallah is part of a sudden and savage, deep and wide assault on thousands of Hezbollah targets including its missile launchers and weapon and fuel stockpiles as well as its fighters and commanders. But today Israel is routing Hamas, dismembering Hezbollah, assailing the Houthis and effectively suppressing attacks from the lesser militias in Syria and Iraq.
First, its impotence has been exposed. When it assailed Israel with more than 300 missiles and drones in April, Israel closed ranks with the US, France, Britain and Jordan to block and destroy all but a handful. Israel suffered no serious damage.Second, Tehran’s priorities are elsewhere.
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