Iran Pushing Lebanon Into War: This Phase Will End At The Slaughterhouse Of Regional Cconflicts

24 December 2017

By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed

The recent visit of Qais Khazali, one of Popular Mobilization Forces' leaders, to the Lebanese borders is a dangerous development within the framework of regional conflict.

The leader of an Iraqi militia who is involved in an Iranian mission to spark a clash between Lebanon and Israel!

Both Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Popular Mobilization, are militias affiliated with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Coprs (IRGC) and managed by General Qassem Soleimani.

We are well-aware that neither Hassan Nasrallah nor Qais Khazali have any real authority despite all their speeches delivered on television channels. Their militias are neither Lebanese nor Iraqi as everyone knows that for over three years now, they have been fighting in Syria as part of Iran's forces.

So, why did the leader of an Iraqi militia, Khazali, head to the town of Kafr Kila on the Lebanese borders wearing a military uniform, whereas the Syrian borders are closer to him where his militiamen are located with the rest of the Popular Mobilization in Syria?

It was not a threat message but rather a provocative act aiming to expand the scope of war and involve Lebanon in it.

Khazali knows that if he visited the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and threatens Israel from there, he will probably be a target for the Israeli forces, given that Syria is a battlefield open for all forces.

Iran sent Khazali to Lebanon wanting to implicate the country in a new war with the Israelis who previously threatened Hezbollah of launching an attack similar to that of 2006.

The war in 2006 was also Iran-orchestrated when it kidnapped an Israeli soldier and refused to release him.

Hamas, like Hezbollah, is also a group run by Iran.

When former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak succeeded in negotiating the exchange of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit with 1,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, Syrians, who represent Iran, caused the failure of the operation.

Then, Hezbollah tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers near the Lebanese borders which resulted in killing them during the operation. Israel then launched its war against Hezbollah, which was actually Iran's aim.

The war destroyed most of Lebanon's infrastructure and killed Lebanese people's hopes of salvation from war while Hezbollah's forces went underground.

Iran is doing this again now.

For a while now, Tehran has been trying to launch a war front through Lebanon to avoid confronting Israelis in Syria after its militias were bombed for several times there.

Iran views Lebanon as a state that is not firmly controlled and does not have any real central government.

Lebanon's Foreign Minister's recent statement, where he threatened Israel and the US, voices Iran's rhetoric and can never be accepted by most Lebanese people.

The statement was ridiculed by the entire world. He said: "We, in Lebanon, do not evade our destiny to confront and resist until martyrdom. Jerusalem is part of our identity. We only live as free men and revolt against every invader."

Surely, this is not the Christian minister's language or words; it is as though the speech came directly from Hassan Nasrallah's office.

The current Lebanese government has reached this extent of submission and decline! It was so easy to sacrifice its sovereignty and now accepts to sacrifice its own citizens to serve an agenda dictated by a foreign party!

This is a hijacked state that cannot admit the truth about its situation. Now that Iran dominates Syria, Lebanon's situation became annexed to the war's results and agreements. Tehran's domination increased to an extent that it now dares to send its militias and their leaders to demarcation lines with Israel attempting to drag it into a new war.

Since Lebanese party and government leaders do not voice their rejection of Hezbollah's behavior, we are faced with a new phase of Lebanon's political life.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is now managing Lebanon's affairs, from Khazali's visit to southern borders till the foreign minister's speech, and this phase will end at the slaughterhouse of regional conflicts.

Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is the former 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 Al-Madina and Al-Bilad. 

©  EsinIslam.Com

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