WASHINGTON – The race to take over the Syrian Golan Heights has pitted the strategic intentions of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah against those of Israel, which Middle Eastern sources say is giving material help to Sunni jihadists to thwart a perceived threat from Iran and its Lebanese proxy.
The infiltration of Syrian militants into Lebanon threatens Hezbollah’s presence in the strategic Golan, according to Middle East expert Jean Aziz.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, has made a universal appeal to fight the “takfiris,” or foreign fighters, of the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS.
Aziz said that with Jabhat al-Nusra “controlling the southern border area of Syria and reports on cooperation between the group and Israel, the Syrian-Israeli border has become an area of concern for Hezbollah and Iran.”
Aziz pointed out that some strategic locations within the area controlled by Nusra militants are less than 12 miles from the Beirut-to-Damascus highway, according to Al-Monitor, the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East news site.
Any advancements or military infiltration the militants make from the Quneitra province in the Syrian Golan could lead to a “shift in the military balance of power in the Syrian conflict,” he told Al-Monitor.
“Such advances would allow Jabhat al-Nusra elements and other rebel groups to realize two goals to cut off the road between Damascus and Beirut, the supply route between Hezbollah and the Syrian army, and to represent a serious threat to Damascus for the first time since the war erupted,” Aziz said.
“The accomplishment of this would be highly dangerous for Hezbollah and thus cannot be taken lightly.”
Aziz said any gains by the Sunni militant groups opposed to Hezbollah in the area would constitute a new front for Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
“It would also constitute something of a siege, as Hezbollah would be stuck between Israeli forces on the southern border of Lebanon and armed groups to the east along the border with Syria,” he said. “For Hezbollah, such a scenario would be unacceptable and impossible to endure. Reports alleging cooperation between Israel and Jabhat al-Nusra makes this especially troubling for the organization.”
Israel assisting Sunni fighters
Because the Israelis are concerned that the Golan would become a new front for them, Israel has been providing humanitarian assistance to some of the Sunni militants, according to various Middle East sources.
Last October, for example, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz the Israeli army was providing such assistance as blankets, food and medical aid to village residents along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Yaalon said “it’s no secret that they benefit from the humanitarian assistance that we provide to the residents.”
Other Middle East sources even say Israeli assistance to militant fighters include weapons and tactical intelligence, although WND could not confirm such assistance.
Zvi Barel, who writes for Haaretz, said Israel will accept Syrian militants on the Golan, but the presence of Hezbollah and Iranian forces would be looked at as a “strategic turning point” and likely be met with “violent Israeli resistance.”
‘Defending Islam’
While Israel views Hezbollah’s presence in the Syrian Golan as a threat, Hezbollah and its leadership regard Sunni jihadist occupation of the area as a threat to Lebanon, the group’s existence and to Islam itself.
“All the world countries consider [ISIS] a huge threat, except Israel,” Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut Monday night. “[ISIS’] agenda had immensely served the Israeli one,” Nasrallah said.
He warned that ISIS was threatening Islam as a whole and not just Syria and Saudi Arabia, where the jihadist group has threatened to take Islam’s holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.
“Confronting ISIS militarily and politically amounts to defending Islam,” Nasrallah said. “We consider ourselves, in Hezbollah, that we are defending Islam as a whole. The origin of the brutality and violence of ISIS takfiris is Hollywood. Any behavior by he who pretends to be a Muslim but contradicts the rules of humanity is not a Muslim at all.”
Nasrallah said that those who criticize Hezbollah for assisting Syria should join it in fighting ISIS.
“I call for those who are urging us to withdraw from Syria to join us in our fight in Syria,” Nasrallah said. “Let’s go to Iraq and everywhere to face off this threat because this is the right way to defend Lebanon.”
He also called for a “national counter-terrorism strategy” to confront the threat from Nusra and ISIS.
Nasrallah said the fate of the world is at stake in the Middle East region and that Lebanon cannot disassociate itself from what is happening in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Libya.
“Jordan cannot fight ISIS in Iraq and support al-Nusra in Syria,” Nasrallah said. “Terrorist groups are all faces of the same coin. People in the region must not wait for an international strategy to fight the Takfiri threat. Everybody should have the initiative to face this threat as we are doing.”
