Lebanon's president calls on Hezbollah to leave Syria

[aris2chat]

They should be banned and the organization should be disarmed.

Lebanon's president calls on Hezbollah to leave Syria
Lebanon's president calls on Hezbollah to leave Syria | i24news - See beyond

Syrian army launches offensive against rebels to regain control of region along the border with Israel

Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman on Saturday urged Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria, expressing concern for the future of his country that has suffered 15 years of its own civil war.

"From this place of return, I appeal for a return to Lebanon and a withdrawal from neighboring arenas to prevent future repercussions on Lebanon’s unity, social fabric and choices," the Lebanese English language newspaper Daily Star quoted Suleiman as saying in a public appeal to Hezbollah near the end of his term.

The Lebanese Shi'ite group, which joined the battles in Syria last year alongside the regime's forces, is backed, financed and trained by Iran seeing as how the Islamic republic is constantly looking to establish itself as a leading power in the region.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to keep his fighters in Syria as long as needed to shore up Bashar al-Assad's fight against the rebels.

But the three-year-old civil war has fueled Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in neighboring Lebanon and across the wider Arab world.

With Hezbollah on its side, Assad's regime now claims it has a firm hold on much of central Syria around the capital and the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The Syrian army began a new offensive on Friday against the rebels, meant to regain complete control of the Quneitra region, which borders with northern Israel's Golan Heights.

"The army wants to take back hills seized by rebels in recent weeks, that link together Daraa and Quneitra provinces," Syrian Observatory For Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"The army's counter-offensive, against rebels and the (jihadist) Al-Nusra Front, has been extremely fierce. On Friday the army fired 100 rockets and carried out 15 air strikes. On Saturday, the air raids and shelling have been continuous, and the army also fired a surface-to-surface missile against Sahem village," Rahman said.

Israel has been watching closely the war in Syria, fearing it would spillover into its territory.

 

[waltky]

Hezbollah more formidable than first thought...

Israeli army chief: Hezbollah's power underrated
June 09th 2014 ~ Lt. Gen. Gantz says group is amassing experience in Syria, which would result in an offensive against Israel

Israel's Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz estimated Monday Hezbollah's military capabilities are almost as powerful as any developed country, even Israel's. "Show me four or five states with more firepower than Hezbollah: the US, China, Russia, Israel, France, the UK," Gantz said in an address at the annual Herzliya Conference. "The bad news from our point of view, is that while Hezbollah is fighting on three fronts... it is also amassing experience which we will one day face," he added.

Gantz warned that in Syria there is "a radical axis developing, led by Iran and Hezbollah." "The Lebanese terror organization is up to its neck in everything that is going on in Syria. The global jihad is also gaining strength in that arena," he explained. According to the top officer, Israel would soon "encounter Hezbollah offensives, be it frontally or in the form of widespread combat within Lebanon." Gantz also expressed concerns over the "dramatic" armament in the Gaza Strip. "We have to maintain our superiority in the sea, on land and in the air, as well as in terms of intelligence," Gantz said.

He then turned his attention to Iran, reiterating Israel's mantra on the subject of a nuclear Iran. "Iran has not relinquished its nuclear vision," Gantz stated. "I am convinced that Iran must be stopped before it achieves nuclear power, which, in turn, will spark an arms race. With the help of the international community, we can make it so that Iran will never get there, be it by use of force or without use of force. Iran must not achieve nuclear power," Gantz concluded.

170,000 missiles aimed at Israel

Gen. Itay Baron, head of the Israeli army Military Intelligence research section, said Monday terrorist organizations have been successfully rearming their missiles' stockpile for the past 18 months since the November 2012 Gaza operation Pillar of Defense. In his address at the annual Herzliya Conference, Baron said that currently in Gaza there are hundreds of long-range missiles, which are aimed at the center of Israel.

Baron estimated that at any given moment there are 170,000 missiles aimed at Israel, mostly short-ranged ones. According to him, Iran plays a crucial part in helping the terrorist organizations arm themselves with more updated weapon. Addressing Hezbollah, Baron said the militant group is busy building deterrence against Israel, which includes arming itself with advanced missiles.

Israeli army chief: Hezbollah's power underrated | i24news - See beyond

See also:

IDF gets set to target 50,000 Al Qaeda fighters piling up around Israel in Syria and Iraq
June 9, 2014, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz’s cryptic remark Monday, June 6, that “The Israeli Air Force will next month dramatically change its mode of operation,” meant that a decision has been taken to start directing the IAF’s fire power against military and terrorist targets in the Syrian and Iraqi arenas – in particular the al Qaeda forces foregathering ever closer to Israel’s borders with Syria, Iraq and Jordan. By aerial fire power, the general meant not just warplanes but also Israel’s long-range unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters.

He was lecturing to the Herzliya meeting of the Interdisciplinary Center’s policy and strategy institute. On May 28, foreign sources were quoted as reporting that the Israeli Air force had shut down its last AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters squadron, which had served manly for strikes against armored and ground targets. Instead, lighter and cheaper drones have been commissioned for use against those targets. Asked what he meant by “a dramatic change in the IAF’s mode of operations,” Gen. Gantz replied: A different kind of enemy is at our door. It is “more mobile, better at concealment and comes from farther away.” If we count the jihadists present in the northern part of the map (.i.e., north of Israel) and add them to those scattered in the south and east (Iraq, Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula), we come to a total of 50,000 armed Islamist fighters, he said..

So how do we handle them? Two divisions? That may work for the Gaza Strip. But this enemy is widely scattered and not susceptible to our usual military tools. Still, we are obliged to deal with this menace and “we also have the opportunity to do so.” That was all the chief of staff was ready to say on the subject. He made it clear that conventional military divisions are obviously no use for combating Al Qaeda’s 50,000 terrorists because they are not a standing, regular army deployed on fixed front lines. They move around stealthily in deeply remote desert regions and wadis, which are often unmarked even on military maps. But they do have command centers, some of them mobile, and are beginning to take over strategic points in Syria and Iraq, including main road hubs, bridges, small towns and oil fields and pipelines.

The intelligence to support aerial combat against these targets is also different from the kind which supported the IDF hitherto. Gen. Gantz touched on this when he said: “We understand that we must turn to a method of warfare that hinges on intelligence, which means bringing our intelligence into those places.” In other words, before Israeli aerial vehicles approach jihadist targets, Military Intelligence Corps combat field units must be on hand, operating over broader stretches of terrain than ever before. All this adds up to the IDF and IAF undergoing a process of radical change in its military-air-intelligence strategy, which, say DEBKAfile's military sources, brings them close to the American methods of operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan to be introduced after the US troop withdrawal at the end of the year. It is safe to assume that the two armies will work together in close rapport in the war on Al Qaeda. The Gantz doctrine has not been accepted by all of Israel’s generals and commanders.

On May 21, former Navy Chief, Brig. (Res.) Elie Merom made bluntly critical remarks on what he referred to as the “monopoly on firepower in depth” which Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon proposed to award the IAF. He said this imbalance was unhealthy, that the air force has many limitations and putting all one’s eggs in one basket is asking for glitches and uncertain consequences. Merom added: “These days, automatic fire can be initiated from any platform just as well and accurately as from airplanes. It’s also cheaper.” A kind of competitive dispute has sprung up among the IDF’s top generals and commanders over whether it is the task of the armed forces to define and locate targets for the air force to strike, or whether other combat units can manage to provide firepower of the same quality, efficacy and precision as the air force.

Gantz: IDF gets set to target 50,000 Al Qaeda fighters piling up around Israel in Syria and Iraq