In a demonstration of its complete control over Lebanon, Hezbollah hosted members of an Iraqi Shiite militia along the border with Israel, like reported by thetower.org.
Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iraqi militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq, as well as members of the militia appeared in a video that was released Saturday, with members of Hezbollah, Reuters reported. Al-Khazali said that he intended “to stand together with the Lebanese people and the Palestinian cause” against the “Israeli occupation.”
It isn’t clear when the video was recorded.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, according to Reuters, said in June that any future wars waged by Hezbollah against Israel could include thousands of fighters from allied Shiite militias.
Hezbollah arranged a media tour of the border with Israel in April which showed that the Iran-backed terrorist group had “dropped all pretenses and laid bare the joke that is UNSCR 1701 and the ‘Lebanese government,” Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote at the time.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Falaki, who has commanded the Iranian-supported Afghan Fatemiyoun Division, said in August of last year that Iran was raising a Shiite army whose goal was “God willing, we will not have anything called Israel in 23 years.”
Israel’s total withdrawal from Lebanese territory in 2000 was recognized by the United Nations Security Council, which affirmed in June of that year that “Israel had withdrawn its forces from Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolution 425.”
While Hezbollah claims that Shebaa Farms, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, is Lebanese territory, the UN concluded that there is no basis for a Lebanese claim on the area. Experts have assessed that Hezbollah’s claims that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese territory serve as a pretext for keeping its weapons in violation of several UN Security Council resolutions.
