A thirty-two-year-old Beirut-born cleric, Nasrallah was chosen by Hezbollah’s twelve-member Shura Council, the group’s religious leadership, who recommended him to Iran’s then-president Hashemi Rafsanjani. For a time, Nasrallah was Musawi’s “star disciple,” Bergman
notes. But the two would eventually have disagreements, with Nasrallah opposing close ties with the Syrian regime of Hafez al-Assad and believing that “the guerilla war against Israel should be prioritized” over attempts to take control of the government in Lebanon.
But with Nasrallah at the helm, Hezbollah would both prioritize the war against Israel and eventually take over the levers of power in Lebanon. Ironically, the group would also forge even closer ties with both Iran and Syria, including taking part in the Syrian civil war to prevent the overthrow of
Bashar al-Assad, Hafez’s son and successor. Indeed, Bergman
notes, “after the targeting killing” of Musawi, the “priorities shifted” and the IRGC “began to prefer Nasrallah’s approach.”
In early March 1992, Hezbollah carried out two attacks in Turkey, one aimed at an Istanbul synagogue and the other the car bombing of the chief security officer for the Israeli embassy, Ehud Sadan. And on March 17, Hezbollah used a car bomb outside the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The explosion
murdered twenty-nine people and injured 242 others. Hezbollah had officially gone global in its attempts to murder and maim Jews. To be sure, Hezbollah had always been vociferously anti-Semitic,
singling out Jewish passengers during its previous skyjackings. But March 1992 seemed to signal grander ambitions.
The sophistication behind the attacks, particularly the Buenos Aires bombing, showed that the group had planned them well in advance of Musawi’s assassination. A subsequent investigation by Israel and the CIA would determine that the bombing had been
carried out by one of forty-five sleeper cells that Hezbollah had deployed all over the world. More attacks would follow.
In January 1993 and March 1994, Hezbollah attempted to carry out attacks in Turkey and Thailand, targeting the head of the Turkish Jewish community and the Israeli Embassy, respectively. And on July 18, 1994, Hezbollah perpetrated the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, murdering eighty-five people and wounding more than 300. The
AMIA bombing stood as the worst terrorist attack in the Western hemisphere until Sept. 11, 2001.
Hezbollah also
advanced in Lebanon. Empowered by Nasrallah, Imad Mughniyeh increased attacks on the IDF. “From month to month and year to year, Hezbollah’s performance improved and its daring increased,” Bergman noted. The group “employed increasingly sophisticated electronic systems” to monitor IDF radio communications, stepped up its operational tempo, and used finely tuned propaganda aimed at encouraging Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon—all to lamentable success. By 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, handing Nasrallah’s Hezbollah a tremendous PR victory.
(full article online)
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/hezbollah’s-turning-point-came-1992-201599