Report: Hezbollah Not Planning to Defend Iranian Patrons in Israel Conflict
The Emirati newspaper the National reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources within the terrorist organization, that Hezbollah is not planning to aid Iran in its ongoing conflict with Israel despite its deep ties and financial reliance on Tehran.
Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based terrorist organization that functions as a highly influential political party in that country. It has collaborated with, and benefited financially from, the Iranian Shiite regime for decades. The State Department estimated in 2020 that Hezbollah was receiving $700 million a year in Iranian largesse to conduct terrorist activity.
In addition to engaging in terrorist activity in the Middle East, Iran has relied on Hezbollah for strengthening its influence in Latin America. Hezbollah has for at least two decades maintained close ties to the socialist regime government in Venezuela, engages in organized criminal activity throughout South America, and is widely believed to have played a primary role in the bombings of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) and the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in the 1990s.
Hezbollah’s influence has diminished significantly in the past year, however, following targeted attacks in Lebanon by the Israeli government, including an airstrike that eliminated the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in September. Weeks before Nasrallah’s demise, hundreds of pagers, mobile phones, laptops, and walkie-talkies linked to Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously, killing and injuring a large percentage of the jihadist group’s membership. The Israeli government has not formally taken responsibility for that attack, though reports have linked the pager operation to the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad.
This context, combined with a Lebanese government adamant to avoid involvement in the current conflict between Israel and Iran, is keeping Hezbollah from taking action in Iran’s defense, the National reported.
“Iran can defend itself,” an anonymous source in Hezbollah told the National. The newspaper’s sources also stated that the Lebanese government under President Joseph Aoun warned Hezbollah not to enter the fray and “they said they wouldn’t,” for now. The report added that Hezbollah does not intend to change its position if the United States decides to conduct military activity against Iran in support of Israel.
“The group has made it clear that it does not intend to take part in any retaliatory action to support Iran,” the report emphasized.
The Emirati newspaper reported from a location in southern Lebanon known to house terror tunnels – used for stocking weapons and other supplies – and found it abandoned this week, evidence that Hezbollah has not mobilized to prepare for attacking Israel.
“This area would have been the perfect position for Iran’s most powerful proxy to launch rockets at Israeli positions in support of its patron,” the National reported, referring to a terror tunnel near the town of Chebaa. “But the tunnel – along with other Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon – now lies vacant, as per the conditions of last November’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.”
Iran has rarely relied on Hezbollah to defend its own territory – as it uses its expansive proxy terror group network, which it calls the “axis of resistance,” to keep hostilities outside of its borders. Iran has also, however, rarely come under fire as directly as it has this week. In the early morning hours of July 13, the Israeli government launched a wave of airstrikes on Tehran targeting some of the regime’s most senior leaders. Lost in a matter of hours were several nuclear scientists, the Iranian military’s chief of staff, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Another arm of the “axis of resistance,” the collection of Shiite jihadist militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), has also at press time avoided involvement in the conflict between its patrons in Tehran and the Israeli government, opting instead for organizing anti-Israel rallies in Iraq. On Tuesday, members of several PMF militias gathered hundreds in Nineveh, Iraq, calling for the Iraqi government to support Iran against Israel.
“We declare our strongest condemnation and denunciation of the brutal aggression that the Islamic Republic of Iran is being subjected to by the Zionist enemy and its supporters from the global arrogant powers,” the Kurdish outlet Rudaw quoted a senior member of the terrorist militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) declaring at the event.
“We have to take a decisive stance,” Ali al-Daffayi, a senior official for the PMF, declared on Tuesday. That “stance,” however, would be limited for now to protest activity. “We are united in condemning the [Israeli] aggression, and in backing the Islamic Republic and its right to defend itself.”
At least one PMF wing, the Hezbollah Brigades (KH) – which is not related to the Lebanese Hezbollah – has threatened to intervene if the United States gets involved on Israel’s behalf.
“If America intervenes in the war, we will act without any hesitation against its interests and bases in the region,” a statement from KH this week read, referring elsewhere to the United States as the “great Satan.”
