What ails Saudi Arabia-Lebanon relations? Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/February 01 March/16
The “natural” objective of the Saudi-Gulf measures against the “official” Lebanon is to exert pressure against Hezbollah, Iran’s representative in the region. A group of politicians in Lebanon, such as the deputies of the Lebanese Phalanges Party, maintain that it has not done nothing wrong by extending an apology to Saudi Arabia. However, the entire political class in Lebanon became error-prone when it chose to surrender to the Iranian agent which holds the reins of power in Lebanon. It seems that the Lebanese political leader who best understood a decisive Saudi “transformation” is the head of the Lebanese Forces Executive Committee, Samir Geagea. His statements indicate that he is aware of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy’s dimensions and what is expected from Lebanon as a state.
Lebanese in the Gulf
But how can Lebanon benefit from Iran? On the other hand, how will it benefit from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries? How many Lebanese workers live in Iran? How many are they in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Manama, Doha, Kuwait and in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai? According to a study published by Al Arabiya.net, the number of Lebanese residing in Iran since the Mullah regime came to power is 1,000. Most of these are cadres of Hezbollah. However, the number of Lebanese living in Saudi Arabia alone has reached 400,000, not to mention around 150,000 in the UAE who send remittances to Lebanon worth of around $8 billion. The entire political class in Lebanon became error-prone when it chose to surrender to the Iranian agent, which holds the reins of power in Lebanon
All this is besides the various Gulf investments in Lebanon and the large number of Gulf tourists in the land of the cedars. Having said that, how will Iran compensate for all of this? Hezbollah has been in a state of war against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries for decades. If Lebanon doesn’t get rid of this party, which has expanded its presence to Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, there is bound to be a confrontation. Samir Geagea said that the Lebanese Cabinet statement by prime minister Tamam Salam on the Saudi crisis is not satisfactory. He insisted that the Lebanese government ask “from [Hezbollah] to withdraw from the military confrontations waged in all of the Arab countries, otherwise the crisis will only worsen, as it must put the finger on the wound and address [Hezbollah] to withdraw its forces from Syria,” as reported by the Lebanese National News Agency.
Geagea was right; this is the source of the Lebanese ailment that must be healed by putting up a fight against a party, which has taken away the Lebanese state’s free will. It is impossible that Lebanon remains a state while Hezbollah’s “statelet” maintains its presence – a statelet that is training death-mongers in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula.
A company called Hezbollah!
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/February 01 March/16
To understand why Hezbollah has expanded beyond Lebanon into Syria and Yemen, we have to look at it as a limited-liability company that provides services to its owner, the Iranian regime. The party reportedly receives $900 million annually from Tehran. In return, Hezbollah undertakes multiple tasks.
It serves as a fighting force that exempts Iran from direct involvement in wars – this is why Israel attacked Lebanon, not Syria or Iran, even though it is well aware that the party is just a tool and that the Lebanese people are helpless. Tehran’s interest in confronting Israel has nothing to do with the occupation of Palestine, but with a game of regional confrontations. Iran has desires that it wants to impose on the West and Israel, such as allowing its nuclear program and extending its influence in the Arab Gulf countries and Iraq. This is what Tehran has achieved in part due to Hezbollah and other forces such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hezbollah launched its activities in the early 1980s in favor of Tehran. It kidnapped Western journalists, diplomats and professors. It also hijacked planes and conspired to carry out assassinations and bombings in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
As a result of the Iran nuclear deal, Hezbollah’s main function – facing Israel – may expire. This is why the party is trying to reinvent itself as a company that offers other services. Iran has expanded Hezbollah’s services, ordering it to collect and launder money from smuggling and dealing heroin from Afghanistan via Iran, cocaine from South America, and even U.S. cigarettes. Hezbollah recently used some Lebanese banks that were penalized by Washington, resulting in the whole Lebanese banking system being put under tight international control.
Reinvention
When Tehran decides to stop funding Hezbollah, it will shrink in size and activity like any other commercial company. Portraying it as a religious party is unrealistic. Hezbollah, which some had thought could do no wrong, has experienced many scandals over the past few years. Some of its leaders looted money for personal purposes while its members were dying for the party’s convictions. Hezbollah has also admitted serious infiltrations by Israeli spy agency Mossad, which succeeded in recruiting a number of its leaders and members. As a result of the Iran nuclear deal, Hezbollah’s main function – facing Israel – may expire. This is why the party is trying to reinvent itself as a company that offers other services. Accordingly, we can understand Yemen’s importance to it. Hezbollah is training Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militias. Recently, after the Houthis lost control of most of Yemen’s provinces, Hezbollah increased its presence and is trying to open a front against Saudi Arabia on its southern border in the province of Saada, the Houthi stronghold. There are reports of Hezbollah fighters in other conflict zones. It is substituting its task of confronting Israel by fighting the Syrians and perhaps the Turks at a later stage. It is also training multinational Shiite militias to form an army of mercenaries following the Qods Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Hezbollah has trained the Iraqi Hezbollah, Assaeb al-Haq and other extremist Shiite militias fighting on behalf of Iran in Syria and Iraq today, and is expanding the fight to Yemen and other countries.
