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Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR)

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The Unholy Trinity:
Hizbullah, Syria and Iran

Daniel Leshem
Policy Paper No. 94 (Hebrew),
Published in Nativ, 71/6, November 1999

Summary

Hizbullah leaders, Syria and Iran, like to portray Hizbullah as a liberation or “resistance” movement fighting Israeli occupation in South Lebanon, but nothing can be further from the truth.  A Saudi cell of the Lebanon-based Hizbullah helped by Iran and possibly Osama bin Laden as well, probably carried out the 1996 bombing of the US Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran and the 1995 bombing of the US military training center in Riadh.  Syria seems to have allowed or a least chose to ignore senior Iranian intelligence and Revolutionary Guards officers (like Brigadier Ahmed Sherifi) and the Hizbullah using Damascus and Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa as recruiting, training, logistic and operational centers for subversive and terrorist activities in Saudi Arabia.  It is quite possible that Syrian military intelligence may have had foreknowledge of the bombing in Dhahran.  Hizbullah has also helped Iran in its terrorist and subversive activities in Bahrain.

A thorough examination of the often contradictory statements and declarations made by Hizbullah leaders in recent years provides ample proof that this terrorist organization posing as a group of “freedom fighters” is devoted to the “cause” of the destruction of Israel rather than the “resistance” to Israeli occupation in South Lebanon.  The organization’s dangerous but so far unsuccessful attempts to carry out bombing attacks inside Israel, its recently reported increased efforts to recruit Europeans for the “job” and its recent bombing of targets along the security fence on Israel’s northern international border make a mockery of its declared goal to “liberate” Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation.  The belief shared by some Israelis, mainly supporters of a unilateral IDF withdrawal from the security zone, that Hizbullah would stop attacking Israeli targets as soon as the IDF pulled out of Lebanon can best be described as naive.

For the complete text of this article (in Hebrew), click here.