In his first public statement about Israel’s war with Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday indicated that the Shia militant group — though supportive of Hamas’ bloody October 7 attack on Israel — wouldn’t be opening up another front in the war just yet.
Hezbollah, which the US and other countries have designated as a terror group, has engaged in cross-border firefights with Israel since the October 7 attack. That’s not particularly new; there is regularly low-level conflict across the so-called Blue Line, the line of demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, which UN peacekeepers have been deployed to monitor since 2006. But given its proximity to the conflict and Hezbollah’s close affiliation with Iran, it’s a possible front to expand the war.
Lebanon is not the only place at risk of spillover conflict; Iran-backed militias have been attacking US forces in Iraq and Syria, launching 27 attacks at US bases since October 17 after several months without any such attacks. And the Houthis, an Iran-backed Shia group which controls much of southern Yemen, have lobbed missiles and drones in Israel’s direction, though those have been intercepted by US warships in the eastern Mediterranean, as well as by Israeli missile defense systems. “The Iranians are happy to activate their proxy groups and let other people do the fighting and dying — and frankly a lot of the proxy groups are happy to do the fighting and dying,” Jon Alterman, president of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Vox.
Iran, to varying degrees, funds and provides resources to each of these groups, as well as Hamas. “Iran’s relationship with other groups really fits onto a spectrum,” Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told Vox. “At one side of the spectrum you have Hezbollah, because Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah is really like two NATO allies.” Hezbollah…
Read the full article here
