Counterterrorism Blog

Hezbollah preparing for a civil war in Beirut?

By Olivier Guitta

It surely looks like it.
After the recent provocations at the Lebanese-Israeli border plus the planting of five bombs Hezbollah is definitely upping the ante again.

Lebanese security forces intercepted today a semitrailer charged with individual weapons at the outskirts of Beirut. Large quantities of kalashnikov and weapons hidden under hay were seized in Hazmieh. Lebanese customs affirm that the truck was monitored since its departure of Bekaa towards Beirut, but the truck broke down in Hazmieh and security forces decided to intervene. The Ministers of Defense and Justice, informed of this serious event during the Council of Ministers, left the meeting to go to the site and gave their instructions to the police force. At the end of the Council of Ministers, the spokesman of the government, Ghazi Aridi, refused to answer the journalists “before the investigation is over”. Hezbollah confirmed that “the truck belongs to them and that its load was intended for the “Resistance””. The party of God demands that “the vehicle and the weapons are given back and hopes that the authorities are going to cooperate”. The question is why would Hezbollah transfer individual weapons to Beirut, whereas it holds more than 20.000 long range missiles and that it affirms that no weapons are directed against the Lebanese people? Most likely Hezbollah is following Syria's orders to cause chaos in Lebanon, and at the border with Israel, and to delay the formation of the international Court and therefore make it possible for the regime in Damascus to escape justice.
Hezbollah might have wanted to arm its militants in order to prevent the majority from commemorating on February 14 the second anniversary of the assassination of Rafic Hariri.
Hezbollah and Syria would have much to gain from a triggering of combats in central Beirut.