Iran-backed fighters ‘ready to join’ Hezbollah in battle against Israel
THOUSANDS of fighters from Iranbacked groups in the Middle East are said to be ready to head to Lebanon to join Hezbollah in its battle with Israel.
Iran-backed factions and analysts say the influx could take place if the simmering conflict escalates into a fullblown war.
Almost daily exchanges of fire have occurred along Lebanon’s frontier with northern Israel since fighters from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip staged a bloody assault on southern Israel in early October that set off a war in Gaza.
The situation to the north worsened this month after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah military commander in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah retaliated by firing hundreds of rockets and explosive drones into northern Israel.
Israeli officials have threatened a military offensive in Lebanon if there is no negotiated end to push Hezbollah away from the border.
Over the past decade, Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan fought together in Syria’s 13-year conflict, helping tip the balance in favour of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Officials from Iran-backed groups say they could join together again against Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Wednesday that militant leaders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries have previously offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah, and added that the group already has more than 100,000 fighters.
“We told them, thank you, but we are overwhelmed by the numbers we have,” Mr Nasrallah said.
Mr Nasrallah also stated that the battle in its current form is using only a portion of Hezbollah’s manpower, an apparent reference to the specialised fighters who fire missiles and drones.
But that could change in the event of an all-out war.
Mr Nasrallah hinted at that possibility in a speech in 2017 in which he said fighters from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan “will be partners” of such a war.
Officials from Lebanese and Iraqi groups backed by Iran say fighters from around the region will join in if war erupts on the Lebanon-israel border.
Thousands of such fighters are already deployed in Syria and could easily slip through the porous and unmarked border.
Some of the groups have already staged attacks on Israel and its allies since the Israel-hamas war started October 7.
The groups from the so-called “axis of resistance” say they are using a “unity of arenas strategy” and they will only stop fighting when Israel ends its offensive in Gaza against their ally, Hamas.
“We will be [fighting] shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah” if an all-out war breaks out, one official with an Iran-backed group in Iraq told The Associated Press in Baghdad, insisting on speaking anonymously to discuss military matters.
The official, along with another from Iraq, said some advisers from Iraq are already in Lebanon.
Eran Etzion, former head of policy planning for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a panel discussion hosted by the Washingtonbased Middle East Institute on
We will be [fighting] shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah if an all-out war breaks out
Thursday that he sees “a high probability” of a “multi-front war”.
He said there could be intervention by the Houthis and Iraqi militias and a “massive flow of jihadists from (places) including Afghanistan, Pakistan” into Lebanon and into Syrian areas bordering Israel.
Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesman, said in a televised statement this past week that since Hezbollah started its attacks on Israel in October, it has fired more than 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and drones.
“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Mr Hagari said.
“Israel will continue fighting against Iran’s axis of evil on all fronts.”
Hezbollah officials have said they do not want an all-out war with Israel but, if it happens, they are ready.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there has been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel’s war effort in Gaza, doubling down on a claim Washington has denied and underscoring the growing strains between the two allies.
Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet yesterday that the drop occurred four months ago, without specifying which weapons, saying only that “certain items arrived sporadically but the munitions at large remained behind”.
The spat highlights how high tensions have surged between Israel and Washington over the war in Gaza, particularly surrounding the Israeli military’s conduct in the beleaguered territory and the harm to civilian life there.
US President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs since May over those concerns, but his administration fought back last week against Mr Netanyahu’s charges that other shipments had also been affected.
Mr Netanyahu told the cabinet he was driven to release a video in English last week after weeks of unsuccessful pleas with American officials to speed up deliveries.
“In light of what I have heard over the past day, I hope and believe that this matter will be solved soon,” he said, without elaborating.
Mr Netanyahu’s video last week sparked an uproar among critics in Israel and was met with denial and confusion from White House officials.
The White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the US was “perplexed” by Mr Netanyahu’s claims, while press secretary Karine Jean-pierre said: “We generally do not know what he’s talking about.”