U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials says that the Iranian terror proxy has likely not been deterred in the long term.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Hezbollah is already trying revive and rearm itself, Reuters reported Thursday, citing U.S. intelligence sources.
The report said its efforts began even as it was suffering the loss of upwards of 4,000 men, including almost its entire political and military senior echelon, and much of its war materiel during weeks of fighting the IDF in Lebanon, including, according to Israel, much of its rocket arsenal and launchers.
It is recruiting new fighters, and will attempt to smuggle in new weapons from neighboring countries, as it is likely not deterred from its desire to pose a long-term threat both to the U.S. and its regional allies, two intelligence officials, one American and one Israeli, told the news agency.
In the short term, however, it needs time to recover, and meanwhile has declared that its first priority is to help its Shiite supporters rebuild dozens of villages the IDF destroyed as they were found to be hiding thousands of weapons, terror tunnels, or both, all aimed at Israel.
Hezbollah has for years received arms, rockets and missiles from Iran through Syria, besides having its own weapons manufacturing facilities, many of which were destroyed by Israel in what it called “Operation Northern Arrows,” before a ceasefire went into effect last week.
The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah is not allowed to rearm, and all senior Israeli officials, both political and military, have stated that they will use all means necessary to enforce the ban.
The IDF had often bombed trucks laden with weaponry that were trying to get into Lebanon secretly from Syria even before Hezbollah joined Hamas’ war on Israel a day after the Gazan terrorists’ invasion and massacre of 1,200 people last October 7th.
The fellow Iranian terror proxy showed its support mainly by launching some 20,000 missiles, rockets, UAVs, RPGs and anti-tank missiles over the border in the last almost 14 months, killing dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers and causing an enormous amount of property damage.
The Israeli air force has also bombed Syrian airports in the past in an effort to deter Iranian arms shipments from getting in, to be used either by their own forces in the country or to be smuggled on to Hezbollah.
A senior American official told Reuters that the Biden administration is attempting to put pressure on Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad to restrict Hezbollah’s efforts, calling on regional allies to do the same.
On Monday, Reuters reported that Washington has talked to the United Arab Emirates about the possibility of lifting certain sanctions on the Syrian regime if Assad blocks the smuggling routes and distances himself from Iran.
Pulling away from the Islamic Republic that has been one of his few strong allies, helping the regime maintain power and regain many areas of the country that had fallen to rebels during a years-long civil war, would seem to be too difficult, especially as some groups have just raised their heads again after a long hiatus, taking Aleppo and now almost completely surrounding the key city of Hama.
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