Hezbollah Says It Can Produce Precision Missiles With Iran's Help
The leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah group said for the first time on Wednesday that it can convert thousands of rockets into precision missiles within Lebanon.
The leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah group said for the first time on Wednesday that it can convert thousands of rockets into precision missiles within Lebanon.
"We have been producing drones in Lebanon for a long time, and whoever wants to buy them, submit an order," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech to followers.
He said Hezbollah was able to transform standard rockets into precision missiles with the cooperation of "experts from the Islamic Republic of Iran". Such production had been spurred by arch-foe Israel's increased use of drone technology, he said.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 and have at times in the years since traded fire across Lebanon's southern border.
There was no immediate Israeli response to Nasrallah's statements. While the Israeli military outguns Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel worries that in a future war they could use precision-guided missiles to knock out parts of its national infrastructure like ports or power stations.
Israel has said in the past that it has brought down several Hezbollah drones that had crossed into Israeli air space. Hezbollah says its increased anti-drone capabilities have led to a decline in Israeli drone overflights.
Israel last week published the names of three Lebanese companies that it accused of supplying materials for Hezbollah's precision-guidance missile project, a move designed to generate international economic pressure on the Shi'ite Muslim group.
"Hezbollah are endangering the citizens of Lebanon and the state of Lebanon," Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement. Israel, he added, would "act resolutely in the face of the Iranian precision project operating from the heart of Lebanon".
Reuters Report
Abdullatif Al-Zayani, the Bahraini foreign minister, announced the plan during the visit to the kingdom Tuesday of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which Al-Zayani said had included discussions of the "Iranian nuclear file and terrorism."
Bennett said he was seeking a “new regional architecture” with Arab Gulf states – referring principally to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, who in 2020 normalized relations with Israel – against "enemies who are fomenting chaos and terror."
Bennett portrayed his two-day trip largely as a common stance against Iran and its allies, including Yemen's Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, whose battle in Yemen against Saudi- and UAE-led forces has spilled over this year into missiles fired at the UAE.
Bahraini opposition activists said Tuesday that at least four people had been arrested in protests against Bennett’s visit in several villages inhabited by Shia, who make up the majority in the country ruled by the Sunni Khalifa family. Bahrain, which crushed protests in 2011 with Saudi help, blames unrest on Tehran.
After meeting King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bennett stressed the importance of a variety of links that have mushroomed between Israel and some Arab Gulf states since the 2020 ‘normalization.’ "We don't have enough trade, we don't have enough tourism - and that is what this visit is all about," Bennett said. "I'm going to be your ambassador there (in Israel). I want to 'sell Bahrain'.”
The two sides announced a research and development accord and that talks would continue on facilitating investment flows. Bahrain’s has severe fiscal problems with public debt running at around 130 percent of GDP. A bilateral security accord reached in February could give Bahrain access to controversial Israeli technology used to monitor dissidents.
Israel’s Growing Military Role
The proposed visit to Israel by Crown Prince Salman will irk the Palestinians, who see ‘normalization’ as a betrayal of their aspiration for a state. Qatar this month reiterated its support for a Palestinian state as a precondition for ‘normalization,’ the stance agreed in the 2001 Saudi-drafted Arab Peace Initiative.
Bennett’s visit Tuesday to the Bahrain base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet highlighted Israel’s growing military role in the Persian Gulf. A US official said Tuesday the navy was considering adding unmanned Israeli boats to its joint regional operations and was also interested in Israeli-made drones.
Officials also said Israel would become the 29th country to post an attaché to the fleet's Manama headquarters. Meeting Fleet commander Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper Tuesday, Bennett said he expected "the cooperation among the region's countries and powerful ally the United States will keep getting closer.”
After the warm relationship between former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and former US president Donald Trump, Israel’s relationship with the US has been strained by its leaders’ continued opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which world powers including the US are trying to revive in talks with Iran in Vienna.
Ramazan Sharif was commenting on a story and a 50-minute recording published by the United States-funded Radio Farda based on an audio recording of a conversation in 2018 between former Guards (IRGC) commander Mohammad-Ali Jafari and his Economic Affairs Deputy Sadegh Zolghadr.
Sharif said that the case cited in the recording had been dealt with, presumably referring to the judiciary announcing last year that four defendants had been sentenced to two to 30 years in prison over embezzlement in the case. Human-rights campaigner Emadeddin Baghi has pointed out that the tape had been published on a Telegram channel two years ago. At the time it went unnoticed by media and then the channel closed down and the recording disappeared.
In the audio file, Jafari tells Zolghadr that Soleimani, who was killed by a United States drone attack in Baghdad in 2020, knew about 80,000 billion rials (around $3 billion at the time) held by Tehran municipality and Yas Holding, a firm controlled by the IRGC's Cooperatives Foundation, and had also been aware of corruption allegations before any public indictment and trials.
The tape even reveals that Soleimani was upset about the action taken by Jafari and Zolghadr against those who had embezzled the money and spoke to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about it.
The funds had been due to reach the Qods (Quds) Force, the IRGC extraterritorial arm, which Soleimani commanded. In the recording, Zolghadr says that Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, had ordered 90 percent of the money, earned by Yas Holding, to be used to finance the Qods Force with the remainder going to the IRGC for general needs.
In a note Monday, Hossein Shariatmadari, chief editor of the flagship hardliner Kayhan daily, defended Soleimani and others – including Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the head of IRGC intelligence Hossein Taeb – mentioned in the recording. Most other hardliner media such as the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper are still completely silent about the highly controversial contents of the audio recording but in a note Monday
‘Cleverly lured’
"It was said that the Qods Force was supposed to have a share of the revenues of the said firm,” he noted. “What is wrong or dirty about this?" He claimed the IRGC and judiciary had shown their integrity by prosecuting corrupt individuals.
Shariatmadari also defended Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran mayor at the time, saying he had "cleverly lured" his ex-deputy, Isa Sharif, back to Iran from Canada so he could be prosecuted.
Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, spokesman for parliament’s national security committee, Saturday detected “psychological war” in Radio Farda’s publication of the recording. “The ill-wishers have failed to achieve what they sought and use as an excuse to tarnish the IRGC’s image.”
But critics of the Islamic Republic, and specially the economic and political power held by the IRGC were quick to show the recording as proof of deep corruption, that Soleimani and other senior figures were aware of.
The problem for the regime is that in its infinite lack of transparency, once such a scandal reveals itself, all officials involved fall under suspicion. There is no proof in the recording that Soleimani personally benefitted from the corruption, but critics have a right to question everyone's role, since there is no free media in the country or independent courts to investigate the matter.
Former reformist interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh tweeted Saturday that the case showed a conflict of interest within the military and political establishment. "Can you see the outcome of putting weapons, intelligence, money, and media [in the same hands]?” he wrote. “Is this anything other than the military's control over diplomacy and economy? Is there anyone to hold to account? Is there anyone who dares to prosecute?"
