The Hezbollah party in Lebanon put on a show of force Sunday, extending a rare media invitation to one of its training sites in southern Lebanon, where its forces staged a simulated military exercise.
Masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above and a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The exercise came ahead of Liberation Day, the annual celebration of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon on May 25, 2000, and in the wake of a recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza. Militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, has long had ties with Hezbollah.
The recent heightened tensions also come months after Lebanon and Israel signed a landmark US-brokered maritime border agreement, which many analysts predicted would lower the risk of a future military confrontation between the two countries.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the Hezbollah exercise.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech Sunday that the exercise was meant to “confirm our complete readiness to confront any aggression” by Israel.
He alluded to the party’s possession of precision-guided missiles, which were not on display but which he said Israel would see “later.”
Turning to the Lebanese people, he said: “The resistance [Hezbollah] is committed to its vow to liberate the Shebaa Farms. The positive atmosphere in the region is a valuable opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted. The Zionist entity should be the entire Arab world’s sole enemy.”
Local condemnation
The maneuver drew widespread condemnation in Lebanon by Hezbollah’s rivals, who said it was yet another example of the party undermining the authority of the state and further evidence that it has created a state within a state in the country.
Head of the Kataeb party MP Sami Gemayel tweeted: “Hezbollah’s maneuvers in the South are first and foremost a message of defiance to the Lebanese people and second, to the Arab summit.”
“It is the image of the nation if the party is allowed to consolidate its hegemony over it,” he warned.
Addressing the Arab and international community: “Would you accept such military maneuvers and the usurpation of the state’s voice in your own countries? We will not yield to the weapons and we refuse to have our country and youth be exploited for foreign agendas.”
Kataeb MP Nadim Gemayel remarked that the maneuver was more of a message to Lebanon than Israel.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the development was a “provocation” of all Lebanese people, calling on the military command and government to “take a clear stand towards the maneuver and the evident violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
Moreover, he said the images were reminiscent of the days that preceded the 1975-90 civil war when Palestinian armed groups held sway in the country.
“We reject this and will not accept it,” he declared.
Moreover, the MP warned that the authorities’ failure to take an official stance over the issue means that every Lebanese can be allowed to take up arms to defend themselves and confront Israel.
“At this rate, I can call on my supporters to openly carry weapons and refuse to stop at checkpoints – seeing as we are all equal and are not concerned with the army or the state,” he added.
The maneuver is a “threat to everyone who refuses to comply with Hezbollah, including when it comes to the presidential elections,” he stressed.
Lebanese Forces MP Ghayath Yazbeck told Asharq Al-Awsat that the maneuver “is a continuation of the party’s coup against the state.”
MP Ashraf Rifi slammed Hezbollah, saying the party “won’t intimidate anyone with its shows of force. We will confront you and (...) the majority of the Lebanese people will not remain silent over a militia that is being ordered around by Iran.”
