In this case, it claims that Hezbollah has recently trained 8,000 fighters who can “cross the border and occupy an Israeli town within a few hours.”
The chief of Lebanese Hezbollah’s Executive Council Hashim Safiuddin gave an interview to Iran’s Tasnim news, a pro-Iran regime outlet.
In the interview, he sketched out Hezbollah’s general assessment of the situation in the region. The interview comes as Iranian media broadcasted a meeting between Iran’s Supreme Leader and members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Taken together this can be seen as Iran utilizing its proxies and considering its next moves.
In general, Iran appears to have assessed that conflicts confined to Gaza do not achieve results. Nevertheless it praises PIJ for the recent conflict against Israel. However, Iran’s real goal is to stoke tensions in the West Bank. It is watching the clashes in Nablus, Jenin and other incidents closely.
Iran’s perception of Israel
Despite evidence of Israel’s obvious strength, such as it’s defense exports and more support for the Abraham Accords in the US, Iran nevertheless believes that the situation is changing in Iran’s favor.
The long interview and article uses a common Iranian technique of quoting what it says is Israeli or foreign media to reaffirm its own views. In this case, it claims that Hezbollah has recently trained 8,000 fighters who can “cross the border and occupy an Israeli town within a few hours.”
Hashim Safiuddin says that, in the next conflict, Hezbollah intends to attack Israel and “enter the occupied territories.” This doesn’t mean the West Bank probably, but rather trying to attack northern Israel or even Mount Dov.
“I believe that one day we will enter Palestine and Jerusalem.”
He claims that Palestinian groups are increasing their power and gives the example of PIJ. Clearly Hezbollah is seeking with Iran to empower PIJ.
Hezbollah and its Iranian backers believe that Israel is growing more weak internally due to political chaos.
It also claims that the US is declining and that this decline means that Israel will also decline alongside the US. This is because they believe the US is Israel’s key backer in the region.
Iran also believes its recent inroads in the Gulf have been a setback to the Abraham Accords, despite the fact that evidence points to the contrary.
What matters in the recent interviews is that Iran presents this as a full court press, involving talks with Hezbollah and the PIJ, alongside stronger ties with Syria’s regime and Iran’s outreach to South America. …
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-746339.
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