The Iran-Hezbollah connection, some information

Recall that I was recently wondering about the much-ballyhooed Iran-Hezbollah connection. The assumption made throughout the US media, and thus the American public, is that the Israel-Lebanon conflict is war with Iran by proxy. I wondered what the nature of the ties with Iran actually are. Yes, I know, I hear lots of reports and claims of arms supplies, Iranian glee, etc., but most of this information has to be taken on faith from our government and its media mouthpieces, and I'm rather disinclined to trust much of anything coming from this administration. I refuse to buy that bridge in Florida.

The point is that I still haven't seen good evidence backing up this general widespread claim. I have seen, however, wild, unsubstantiated variations on a theme and bated breath in the media and the blogworld about the meaning of the conflict as a broader war. Pundits galore go on about the complex triangulations of influence around the Middle East, turning assumptions into facts with grim and knowing nods.

It has seemed to me that in order to judge this whole affair wisely, we ought to have a better grip on precisely what the lines of influence are, of what they are comprised, and what strategic roles they (or their imaginary relations) play in international politics.

Here's Richard Sale, writing today at the indispensable Sic Semper Tyrannis, adding a bit to our understanding of the influences behind the conflict.

Serving senior and former U.S. intelligence officials said that this latest Israeli onslaught against the Hizballah will work to further undermine Tel Aviv's security in the near future.

They said that the American public and especially officials in the Bush administration appear to be laboring under several potentially disastrous illusions regarding the Israeli-Hizballah fighting.

One of the first of these is that Hizballah can be uprooted and destroyed. On the contrary, they insisted that it is an integral part of Lebanese society and an authentic
representative of the Shia population and cannot be gotten rid of by bombing installations or capturing some strong points.

They also insisted that Hizballah is NOT a puppet of Iran. One former very senior CIA official told me that Iran did NOT want this current upsurge in violence, nor had Iran given any previous green light for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers' Magnus Ranstorp, a British expert on Hizballah said in an e-mail to me that Nasserallah (sic) made the decision himself, an opinion which four former or serving U.S. government officials agreed with. Ranstorp said there are two Iranian representatives from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut that provide a direct link for matters that require strategic guidance but said Nasserallah was the source of the kidnap decision. Both Ranstorp and U.S. officials believe the notorious Imad Mughniyeh who belongs both to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and HIzballah, had a part in the implementation of the decision but was not the author of it.

[My emphasis, Helmut]