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Under the late President Hafez Assad, Lebanon was a Syrian asset that outsiders weren’t allowed to exploit. But Assad’s son and successor Bashar has been dealt a weaker hand and Lebanon is now up for sale, according to a report in Geostrategy-Direct Intelligence Brief.
The leading client is Iran. Arab diplomatic sources said the junior Assad has allowed Iran to essentially take over southern Lebanon. Iran has unlimited access to the Shi’ite areas of southern Lebanon and supplies missiles and military communications to Hezbollah.
The new Syrian policy began in April when Israeli warplanes destroyed a Syrian radar station east of Beirut. Assad and his aides were embarrassed and alarmed by the Israeli air attack, concerned that this would hurt their hold over Lebanon and weaken the regime in Damascus.
At that point, the sources said, the Iranians were invited to expand their presence from the Bekaa Valley to southern Lebanon. By June, Tehran supplied a range of Katyusha rockets and anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah. The missiles were placed under supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and they fired the Fajr-5 missiles toward Israeli positions after another Israeli attack in June.
At the same time, Iran established training bases in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and invited Islamic allies from such countries as Egypt, Kuwait and Sudan. The bases in the towns of Janta and Yanta also provided training to Syrian personnel.
The bases are off-limits to the Lebanese military and government. Syria, the sources said, has authority around the bases, but no control over the Fajr-5 missiles, with a range of 70 kilometers and regarded as a strategic weapon against Israel.
“We are seeing Lebanon turn into an Iranian Shi’ite state,” an Arab diplomat said. “And it is taking place by permission from Syria, the leading Arab nationalist country. This will have long-term significance for the entire region.”
