Iran/Syria-Supported Anti-USA Hizbullah Terrorism

by Yoram Ettinger
yoramtex@netvision.net.il

July 20, 2003

1. While the destruction of Saddam’s regime has bolstered US posture of deterrence, it has Rewarded Iran and Syria with the elimination of a key rival for regional hegemony. However, Teheran and Damascus consider the US as the chief obstacle on the way of attaining their historical ambitions (control of the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States, Jordan, Lebanon and southeastern Turkey). In their attempt to drive the US out of Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Mideast at large, Iran and Syria have employed Hizbullah, importing Lebanese-style anti-US terrorism into Iraq. Until 9/11, more Americans were murdered by Hizbullah than by any other terror group!
    

2. Anti-USA Hizbullah terrorists murdered 300 Americans in 1983, driving car bombs into the US embassy and US Marines headquarters in Beirut. Hizbullah credits itself with the expulsion of the US (1983) and Israel (2000) from Lebanon. It wishes to add the US expulsion from Iraq to its credit. Hizbullah camps in Lebanon have become a training ground for al-Qa`idah and other anti-USA terrorist groups from the Mideast, Asia and Latin America. These groups have carried out the bombings at the US military base in Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, etc.
    

3. Hizbullah has bolstered power projection of Iran and Syria, exporting Khomeini’s revolution globally, establishing cells in Europe, the US, Canada, Latin America and Africa. According to Gal Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (Commentary, July-August, 2003), Hizbullah advances Iran’s vision of “a Mideast free of Western influence... Together with Syria and Iran, Hizbullah appears bent on creating a unified anti-US front from Teheran to Beirut.”
    

4. “Suicide volunteers, among them hundreds of Hizbullah fighters answering Hizbullah’s call for martyrdom operations, began flowing into Iraq.” Luft adds that

   Hizbullah has shifted its focus from the “Little Satan”, Israel, to the “Great Satan”, America, calling for a campaign of millions to eradicate the US presence in the heart of the Arab world. “Death to America” was, is and will remain our slogan. Hizbullah TV steadily broadcasts music clips with lyrics like: “America is the mother of all terrorism; There is nothing left but martyrdom...”

5. [Hizbullah] receives weapons directly from Syria. In return, Hizbullah provides valuable services for Damascus – money laundering, weaponry, smuggling, drug trafficking... Hizbullah’s relations with Iran transcend convenience: culturally, ideologically and politically, the two are cut from the same cloth. Iran, too, provides weapons to Hizbullah, but the quality is superior, including Fajr-5 rockets with a range of 45 miles. Iran also supplies funds, estimated at $100MN per year... Training and political guidance come through Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, stationed in Lebanon’s Beqa` Valley... Hizbullah operatives undertake various illicit missions, promoting instability and strife in the world’s trouble spots...