29 February 2016By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
To understand why Hezbollah has expanded outside its borders in Lebanon into
Syria and Yemen, we must look at it as a limited company that provides
services to its owner; the regime in Iran. Politicians have persistently
described the group as the ''Iranian proxy''.
The price is not cheap; international reports that monitor Iranian funds
estimate that the group receives $900 million dollars from Tehran annually. I
do not know why the figure is $900 million and not $1000 million. Perhaps Iran
pays the remaining $100 million to other forces in Lebanon that also work in
its favour.
In exchange for this great sum, Hezbollah carries out various tasks for Iran.
It serves as a fighting force, absolves Iran from direct involvement in wars
and it is for this reason that Israel attacked Lebanon and did not attack
Syria or Iran, even though it definitely knew that the group is just a tool
and that the Lebanese people are completely helpless. Iran is keen to confront
Israel and its motivation for this has nothing to do with Israel's occupation
of Palestine. Rather, it is part of Iran's game of regional confrontations.
Iran has demands that it wants to impose on the west and Israel such as
gaining permission for its nuclear program and extending its influence on the
Arab Gulf states and Iraq as well. This is what the Iranians have finally
achieved thanks, in part, to Hezbollah and to other forces that worked and
continue to work with it today such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad but this is not
the subject of today's discussion.
The Hezbollah company began its activities in the early eighties to serve the
interests of Tehran; kidnapping westerners including journalists, diplomats
and professors; carrying out hijackings and conspiring to carry out
assassinations and bombings in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The Iranians have expanded the services of the Hezbollah company and the group
has been assigned the task of collecting and laundering money gained from drug
smuggling and dealing; heroin from Afghanistan that is transported through
Iran, cocaine from South America and smuggling cigarettes in the United States
without paying taxes. There is a large amount of information about it on the
American Treasury and organisation to combat drugs websites. Hezbollah
recently dared to use some Lebanese banks and the result of this is that the
entire Lebanese banking system is now under tight international control. These
international acts are planned by the Iranian regime and are implemented by
its ''companies'' like Hezbollah.
It is certain that when the clerical regime in Tehran decides to stop funding
the group, it will shrink in number and activity like any other commercial
company. Do not forget that Hezbollah, who some think is perfect and has a
deep ideological commitment, has been plagued by many financial scandals over
the past few years. It has come to light that prominent leaders of the group
have plundered money for personal purposes at a time when its members were
dying in the name of the group's convictions. The group also admitted that
Mossad has succeeded in recruiting a number of its leaders and its members in
the past. Is it possible for this company to go bankrupt and close its doors
like all companies when their stock in unsaleable?
As a result of Iran signing the nuclear program agreement with the west, there
is a possibility in the near future that Hezbollah's key function will expire;
confronting Israel. Hezbollah must be aware of this possibility even if they
haven't arrived at this stage yet. That is why we see it trying to reinvent
itself as a company with new services; it is expanding the circle of its
members like a mercenary and is fighting outside Lebanon in Syria, Iraq and
Yemen to serve the interests of Iran. Here, we can see the importance of Yemen
to the Lebanese Hezbollah; its militias arrived in the north of Yemen a few
years ago and are building and training Houthi militia which Iran named ''Ansar
Allah'' (a similar name to Hezbollah).
More recently, after the Houthis and their allies (ousted president Ali
Saleh's forces) suffered heavy defeats and lost control of most of Yemen's
provinces, Hezbollah stepped up its presence and tried to open a front against
Saudi Arabia on its southern border in the governorate of Saada, a Houthi
stronghold. Reports confirm the presence of Hezbollah fighters in other
conflict zones far away where they fight as mercenaries.
It seems that the group's company is creating a new alternative service
instead of confronting Israel. It will fight the Syrians and perhaps the Turks
later. It is also training a number of multinational Shiite militias to form
an army of mercenaries following the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard. Hezbollah has also trained the Iraqi Hezbollah, Assaeb Al-Haq and other
extremist Shiite militias fighting on behalf of Iran in Syria and Iraq today,
and expanding the circle of fighting in Yemen and elsewhere.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers
of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He
is currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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