Deep in the rugged hills close to the Israeli border, two Hezbollah fighters crouched near a small fire, which heated a teapot. Despite the late-summer sun, they were both wearing full face masks to disguise their identity, because Hezbollah forbids its members from speaking with foreign reporters.
Russia has urged Syrian President Bashar Assad not to retaliate against Israel after an airstrike on the country’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, which the Syrian regime attributes to Israel, a senior Russia official dealing with Middle East affairs told Yedioth Ahronoth in an conversation in Moscow over the weekend.
In the event of another war with Hezbollah, the IDF’s objective would be to occupy parts of southern Lebanon where the group has support and infrastructure and to force a UN resolution that improves the security situation on the northern border, a senior IDF officer said on Monday.
The Northern Command began the next stage of its wide-scale training exercise in the Western and Lower Galilee on Monday, conducting offensive maneuvers in a simulation of an all-out war against the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah.
Russia has reportedly reassured Israel that it will not allow Iran and its Hezbollah proxy to threaten the Jewish state from Syria, where Moscow is fighting alongside Tehran and the Lebanese terror group on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The U.S. military is keeping a wary eye on Iran’s most violent proxy militia in Iraq, which has vowed to start killing Americans again once the Islamic State is expelled.
Israel launched an aerial attack on Assad posts in Syria overnight, hit a scientific research center where chemical weapons are manufactured and killed two Syrian soldiers, Arab media reported Thursday morning.
Lebanon did not remain silent following the start of a massive IDF drill simulating a war, with a Hezbollah official threatening that ‘the Israelis won’t succeed in surprising us.’
Russia reportedly threatened to use its veto at the United Nations last week if the Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah, its ally in the Syrian civil war, was named in a Security Council resolution to renew the mandate of peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon.
Tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers will stage a mock 10-day war against the Hezbollah terrorist group in northern Israel beginning Tuesday, marking the IDF’s largest exercise in nearly 20 years, the army announced Monday, amid tensions over growing Iranian influence in Syria and Lebanon.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on a PR offensive this week to counter Israeli warnings that a ceasefire imposed by Moscow in Syria is enabling Iran and its terror proxy, Hezbollah, to amass fighters and weapons near the Jewish state’s northern border in preparation for a future war.
Russia has reportedly stationed its advanced S-400 anti-missile defense system near an Iranian arms factory in Syria, which allegedly manufactures long-range guided missiles for Hezbollah to use against Israel.
The United Nations will reportedly expand the mandate of its peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon following complaints from Israel over the international body’s failure to address Hezbollah’s weapons buildup in the area.
The head of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, Maj.- Gen. Herzi Halevi, told UN head Antonio Guterres in Jerusalem this week that Hezbollah is tightening its hold on Lebanon, citing serious and prolonged violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 by the terrorist group.
Proposed tighter U.S. sanctions on Hezbollah have been altered enough to allay fears of major damage to Lebanon’s economy, a sign Washington is taking concerns about Lebanese stability seriously, banking and political sources said Sunday.
Hezbollah has captured much of an Islamic State pocket on Syria’s side of the border with Lebanon in a joint offensive with the Syrian army, its leader said on Thursday.
Thousands of Iranian-backed fighters in Syria’s central desert region are advancing east, bringing Tehran closer to its goal of securing a corridor from its border, through Iraq and all the way to the Mediterranean and providing it unhindered land access to its allies in Syria and Lebanon for the first time.
Lebanese troops launched an offensive against the Islamic State (IS) group Saturday close to the Syrian border where the extremists have been active for several years.
Israel’s former air force chief said Wednesday that it has carried out dozens of airstrikes on weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah group over the past five years.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon announced the planned shipment of 32 M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles from America to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), at an ‘investment’ of $100 million.