DUBAI: With ally Hamas under attack in Gaza, the head of Iran’s Quds Force visited Beirut in February to discuss the risk posed if Israel next aims at Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an offensive that could severely hurt Tehran’s main regional partner, seven sources said.
The conversation turned to the possibility of a full Israeli offensive to its north, in Lebanon, the sources said. As well as damaging the Shiite Islamist group, such an escalation could pressure Iran to react more forcefully than it has so far since Oct. 7, three of the sources, Iranians within the inner circle of power, said.
Over the past five months, Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, has shown support for Hamas in the form of limited volleys of rockets fired across Israel’s northern border.
At the previously unreported meeting, Nasrallah reassured Qaani he didn’t want Iran to get sucked into a war with Israel or the United States and that Hezbollah would fight on its own, all the sources said.
“This is our fight,” Nasrallah told Qaani, said one Iranian source with knowledge of the discussions.
Calibrated to avoid a major escalation, the skirmishes in Lebanon have nonetheless pushed tens of thousands of people from their homes either side of the border. Israeli strikes have killed more than 200 Hezbollah fighters and more than 50 civilians in Lebanon, while attacks from Lebanon into Israel have killed a dozen Israeli soldiers and six civilians.
In recent days, Israe’s counter-strikes have increased in intensity and reach, fueling fears the violence could spin out of control even if negotiators achieve a temporary truce in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated in February that Israel planned to increase attacks to decisively remove Hezbollah fighters from the border in the event of a Gaza ceasefire.
The Beirut meeting highlights strain on Iran’s strategy of avoiding major escalation in the region while projecting strength and support for Gaza across the Middle East through allied armed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, analysts said.
A war in Lebanon that seriously degrades Hezbollah would be a major blow for Iran, which relies on the group founded with its support in 1982 as a bulwark against Israel and to buttress its interests in the broader region, two regional sources said.
Hezbollah tells Iran it would fight alone in any war with Israel
https://arab.news/pvem4
Hezbollah tells Iran it would fight alone in any war with Israel
- Over the past five months, Hezbollah had fired limited volleys of rockets across Israel’s northern border
Israel attacking Lebanon every 4 hours on average: Research
- Independent conflict monitoring organization recorded 1,846 Israeli attacks since start of ceasefire
- UN has recorded more than 10,000 violations, killings of 127 Lebanese civilians
LONDON: Israel is attacking Lebanon at a rate equal to one strike every four hours despite the reaching of a ceasefire more than a year ago, new data has shown.
ACLED, the independent conflict monitoring organization, recorded 1,846 Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the beginning of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Only two days each month since then has not seen an Israeli attack on average, Sky News reported.
In recent weeks, Israeli has ramped up cross-border strikes, with December seeing an average of six per day, or one every four hours. It is the fastest pace of attacks by Israel since May.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon said the ceasefire has been violated more than 10,000 times, or once every 53 minutes on average.
That figure includes more than 2,500 ground activities by the Israel Defense Forces and more than 7,800 violations of Lebanese airspace.
UNIFIL has discovered more than 360 weapon and ammunition caches south of the Litani river. These are reported as ceasefire violations.
The discovery of the caches is proof that Hezbollah is seeking to rearm in the south, Israel has claimed.
But Kandice Ardiel, UNIFIL’s deputy spokesperson, said: “None of these weapon caches were guarded. They had no obvious signs of recent use and were presumably abandoned. Many were even destroyed already, or half-destroyed.”
According to UN figures, at least 127 civilians in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes since the beginning of the ceasefire.
Israel has argued that the ceasefire agreement stipulates Hezbollah’s complete disarmament, not only in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah disputes this, and has conditioned its disarmament on Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
Israel was supposed to withdraw from Lebanon by Jan. 27 this year, with a later extension to Feb. 18.
But Israel has instead ramped up its presence in Lebanon, constructing a new base in February. Four other bases are held by Israel in Lebanon, on hilltops across the south.
The Lebanese government has raised objections to the Israeli bases with the UN, which found that two sections of Israel’s new border wall cross into Lebanese territory.
More than 64,000 Lebanese remain displaced from their homes. One resident of the now-destroyed town of Aita Al-Shaab said: “Anyone who comes to rebuild is attacked (by Israel).”
