Report: Hezbullah asks journalists not to say Israel behind Badreddine assassination
A very interesting tweet from Le Figaro's Georges Malbrunot:
For those, like me, whose French skills are not up to snuff, here's Tony Badran:
Not saying that Israel did it excuses Hezbullah from seeking revenge for it, i.e. war.
Here are some more interesting tweets from Malbrunot's timeline. This series quotes an unnamed diplomat to which I am adding the Bing translations except where they seem ridiculous:
Anti-Assad Syrian armed groups do not have the capacity to carry out such an operation....
... even if Israel could use the services of one of these groups. We have information on the treatment of al-Nusra rebels [at hospitals] in Israel.
Diplomat has no doubt Badreddine assassination an extension of Israeli operations....
... of liquidations of senior Hezbullah officers.
And in case you missed it, Badreddine was killed half an hour after a visit by Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani.
Hmmm.
Labels: Hezbullah, Iran, Mustafa Badreddine, Qassem Suleimani, Syria
Why war between Hezbullah and Israel is unlikely
Even if Israel is behind the
assassination of Hezbullah's Mustafa Badreddine, war between Hezbullah and Israel in the near future is unlikely.
Here's a good 140-character summary of the reason why:
Shabbat Shalom everyone.
Labels: Damascus, Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Iran, Lebanon, Mustafa Badreddine, Rafik al-Hariri, Samir al-Kuntar, Syrian uprising
Beirut barracks bomb preparer, Hariri assassination mastermind killed near Damascus
Israel may have been behind an explosion that killed Mustafa Badreddine, the Hezbullah commander who prepared the bombs for the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, and who is said to the mastermind of the assassination of Lebanese President Rafik al-Hariri in 2005, among other crimes. Badreddine was killed in a blast near the Damascus Airport a few days ago.
This is from the
BBC.
An initial report by Lebanon's al-Mayadeen TV said that Badreddine,
55, died in an Israeli air strike. But a later statement by Hezbollah on
al-Manar's website did not mention Israel.
Israeli media reported that the government refused to comment on whether it was involved in Badreddine's death.
Israel has been accused by Hezbollah of killing a number of its fighters in Syria since the conflict began.
The
group was established in the wake of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon
in the early 1980s, and has called for the "obliteration" of Israel.
A number of Twitter accounts supporting Syrian rebel groups and the
al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front say Badreddine was killed in a battle
in Khan Touman, southern Aleppo, rather than in Damascus.
Khan
Touman was captured by a coalition of groups including al-Nusra Front
last week and has been subject to heavy shelling in recent days.
No official sources have commented on the reports.
Born
in 1961, Badreddine is believed to have been a senior figure in
Hezbollah's military wing. He was a cousin and brother-in-law of Imad
Mughniyeh, who was the military wing's chief until his assassination by
car bomb in Damascus in 2008.
According to one report,
a Hezbollah member interrogated by the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS), described Badreddine as "more dangerous" than Mughniyeh,
who was "his teacher in terrorism".
They are alleged to have
worked together on the October 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps
barracks in Beirut that killed 241 personnel.
Badreddine is
reported to have sat on Hezbollah's Shura Council and served as an
adviser to the group's overall leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Badreddine was tried in absentia by the ongoing Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in The Hague, over the killing of Mr Hariri.
He was indicted on four charges and was said by the tribunal to be "the overall controller of the operation" to kill Mr Hariri.
...
Any of the armed groups seeking to overthrow Mr Assad might have
sought to kill the man co-ordinating Hezbollah military activities.
However, suspicion is likely to fall on Israel, which fought a war
against Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel has been accused of killing
several of the group's leaders over the years, although it has never
officially confirmed its involvement.
Hezbollah military chief
Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008 that US
intelligence officials said last year was a joint operation by the CIA
and Israel's Mossad spy agency.
In January 2015, a suspected Israeli air strike in the Syrian Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters, including Mughniyeh's son Jihad, and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general.
And in December, Hezbollah said one of its senior figures, Samir Qantar, was killed when missiles fired by Israeli jets struck a block of flats in Damascus.
Israel
has also reportedly conducted air strikes aimed at preventing advanced
weapons shipments from Iran from reaching Hezbollah via Syria.
The 'no comment' is Israel's standard operating policy, but if Israel is involved in this, you can bet the Obama administration will make sure everyone knows about it.
The Israel Project's Omri Ceren provides more background by email.
Organizationally Badreddine was "dual hatted," per Matt Levitt, a Washington Institute director and the scholar who literally wrote the book on Badreddine [c]. He was both the head of Hezbollah's external global terror operations and the head of all Hezbollah activities in Syria [d].
Badreddine killed so many different people in so many different places that it's not actually clear if the Israelis were the ones who got him [e]. Under interrogation by Canadian security officials, a Hezbollah member once reportedly described Badreddine as "more dangerous" than his predecessor and cousin Imad Mughniyah [f]. He was unpopular even inside Hezbollah: Levitt tweeted he was "rash, hot tempered, impetuous, even unstable," and "was very close [to] Nasrallah, but widely disliked within Hezbollah," and was "a philandering playboy, not particularly religious" [g][h][i].
A couple of timelines: 1st, Badreddine's terror activities going back decades, 2nd, how the U.S. Treasury designated him as a terrorist starting in 2012, though last month
Badreddine terror activities timeline
1980s - In October 1983 he prepared the bombs for the Beirut barracks bombings, which killed 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen. The targets were separate American and French buildings [j]. In December 1983 he was part of the Iran-backed cell that launched seven attacks in one day in Kuwait, killing 6 and wounding almost 90. The targets were the American embassy, a residential building for American company Raytheon, the French embassy, the Kuwaiti airport, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company oil rig, and a Kuwaiti power station [k].
1990s - He helped establish and then he coordinated Hezbollah Unit 1800, which facilitated terror attacks against Israel from the West Bank and Gaza [l].
2000s - He helped establish and the he coordinated Hezbollah Unit 3800, which launched attacks in Iraq against American, British, and Sunni forces [m]. In 2005 he masterminded Hariri's assassination in Lebanon, which killed Hariri and 21 others.
2010s - He's been coordinating all Hezbollah activities in Syria.
U.S. sanctions and designations timeline
2012 - Treasury designated Badreddine pursuant to E.O. 13224, labeling him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" [n]. The Treasury notice cited him for "providing support to Hizballah’s terrorist activities in the Middle East and around the world," assessed that he was currently "Hizballah's top militant commander," and noted that "the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon charged Mustafa Badr Al-Din with the attack... that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 21 others."
2015 - Treasury piled on more sanctions, this time pursuant to E.O. 13582 [o]. The Treasury note assessed he was "responsible for Hizballah's military operations in Syria since 2011," having sat with Nasrallah during meetings in Damascus throughout 2011 before expanding his role.
April 2016 - Treasury tagged him again, this time under the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015, making him subject to secondary sanctions [p].
Badreddine's assassination could lead to war between Israel and Hezbullah.
Labels: Damascus, Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Lebanon, Mustafa Badreddine, Rafik al-Hariri, Samir al-Kuntar, Syrian uprising
Hezbullah tries to distract attention from Hariri probe by threatening Israel
Hezbullah MP Muhammad Raad told the Beirut Daily Star on Wednesday that in the event that Israel attacks Lebanon,
not one inch of Israel would be spared.
“If Israel launches an attack, rockets of the resistance will cover all of Israel: even the city of Eilat won’t be spared,” Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammad Raad said, referring to the southern most port city of the Jewish state.
Raad’s statement came during a celebration organized by the Islamic Institute for Education.
Although that statement grabbed the headline, Raad is much concerned about something else: Funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The Hezbollah lawmaker also urged that funding to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which issued sealed indictments and arrest warrants against four members of Hezbollah, should cease.
“Funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon should stop because of its targeting of the resistance.”
Counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt says that Hezbullah is
deeply concerned about the Tribunal - and with good reason.
Matthew Levitt, counterterrorism and intelligence director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote on Wednesday that Hezbollah has every reason to fear the details of Hariri’s assassination coming to light.
“The inclusion of [Mustafa] Badreddine – cousin and brother-in-law to Imad Mughniyah, who was chief of the Hezbollah external operations branch known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) until his 2008 assassination by a car bomb in Damascus – has the group on edge, and with good reason.”
“The exposure of evidence tying someone as senior as Badreddine to the murder of Lebanon’s leading Sunni figure would severely undermine Hezbollah’s image – particularly the group’s longstanding claim that it is first and foremost part of the fabric of Lebanese society, and only secondarily a Shi’ite or pro-Iranian movement,” Levitt wrote for the Institute’s PolicyWatch series.
“Hezbollah is now the dominant political force in Lebanon, and the odds that the indicted suspects will be arrested and handed over for trial are slim to none,” he added.
“Regardless of Hezbollah’s response, then, preparations for a trial will likely be underway by fall, whether Badreddine and his accused co-conspirators are present or not.”
We will likely hear many more bellicose threats from Hezbullah over the next couple of months, and they may even attack us in a bid to distract Lebanon from the truth. But if we play our cards right, Lebanon could be heading for civil war again, and we may actually enjoy some quiet on our northern front while watching the Lebanese destroying each other's weapons.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Matthew Levitt, Muhammad Raad, Mustafa Badreddine, Special Tribunal for Lebanon
