Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria... where’s the secret?

Not even for one day it was a secret. Days, events and funerals deeply uncovered the involvement of Hezbollah in Syria, a brigade in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with Lebanese members. It was known to the public ever since the Iranian officials announced one after the other that they are directly involved in the war in Syria and guaranteeing victory over the Syrian people. There were always those who search for proof and this proof came in the last days that Iran is directly involved, together with Lebanon, in the war against the Syrian people. An Iranian military leader went so far that he confirmed the war against the Syrian people as “Iran’s war.” In fact it is a prerogative Iranian war since the current regime managed to gradually control Syria when Bashar al-Assad became the President in summer 2000. Even before that when junior al-Assad started to exercise the power of President when his father’s health condition weakened since 1998. The involvement of Hezbollah in the repression of the popular revolution in Lebanon’s neighbouring country (Syria) reflects an obvious orientation which started to form since 2005, aiming to help in the success of a well calculated and detailed Iranian operation with a final target to connect Tehran and Beirut and then south Lebanon through Basra, Baghdad and Damascus. It was outstanding when King Abdullah II warned about what was called “The Shiite crescent” in October 2004. The political meaning is the alliance which Iran intends to set up, only out of a sectarian perspective, to take control over Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and then extend its powers in other directions, specially the Gulf area. Only King Abdullah II dared at the time to say these rigorous political remarks which not in any way sectarian. There is much more beyond the death of this or that Hezbollah militant in the confrontation between the Syrian people and the region that refuses to admit its end. There is no longer space in the region for such regimes. Regimes that are based on flabby slogans like “resistance” or “opposition” to veil the reality of a, regrettably, sectarian nature. Well yes, there is much more than the death of Hezbollah members in Syria. It’s about the Iranian insistence from one site to save the Syrian regime, whatever it costs and from the other side attempting to take charge of Lebanon in case the Syrian regime falls. The fall of the Syrian regime is a terrifying scenario to the Iranian officials who did everything to save the regime and failed to find a way where the regime could save itself. That’s a problem that Iran should face sooner or later. It will have to face the fact that the Syrian regime cannot be save by any means because it’s not about reform. It is about the problem of a regime, a minority that seeks, on daily basis, to trump Syria and pretend it’s able to provide them with “certificates in Patriotism” which they actually don’t really need. For the first time in the Lebanese history, Arab tourists (especially from the Gulf) boycott tourism in Lebanon. We find that Lebanon suffers from a part of the regional game Iran is playing. Can Iran stay in Lebanon, or better can Iran control Lebanon in case the Syrian regime falls? This is the big question which somehow explains Hezbollah’s hurries to get more and more involved supporting the Syrian regime in its cruel war against its own people. The formation of the current Lebanese government, that of Hezbollah, came within the early Iranian strive to take control over Lebanon making use of the vulnerable the Syrian regime. What can never be ignored is that Iran managed to fill the security vacuum caused by the Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon after the assassination of President Rafiq al-Hariri and his companions in 2005, Iran filled the security gap using Hezbollah. We are watching another season of a very long series, we know how it started but it’s end is unknown. It started with an Iranian decision to arrive to the Mediterranean, particularly Beirut and the Iranian decision to have a demarcation line with Israel in South Lebanon, provided that Iran is a regional power and that it’s the only winner in the American war on Iraq. How would the series end? Well, the only sure thing is that the close fall of the Syrian regime changed the Iranian calculations and its tools, including Hezbollah which should consider its future. This explains the party’s flopping and going too far in its involvement with the Syrian regime, its first sectarian ally, but not the last in the presence of the Iranian regime. Will Lebanon pay for this flopping? It’s probable, but the Lebanese are aware that the Iranian power in Lebanon will very much decrease with the fall of the Syrian regime, and that the current government led by Najib Miqati is the last Iranian government in Lebanon. -- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.