The Lebanese government, headed by President Joseph Aoun, a Christian, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a Sunni, has insisted that Hezbollah’s Shias must be disarmed, so that in Lebanon, only the Lebanese National Army will have weapons. Hezbollah has rejected this demand, and says it will fight to hold onto its weaponry in order to keep fighting the Israelis. The Lebanese army has been emboldened to take on Hezbollah first, by the hundreds of millions of dollars in American weapons that it received earlier this year; second, by the firm diplomatic support it has received from the Sunni Arab states, who rightly regard the Shi’a of Hezbollah as tools of Shi’a Iran, the mortal enemy of the Sunni states, and third, by the battering Hezbollah has received from the IDF. That battering includes the IDF’s assassination both of Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and of his successor Hashem Safieddine, the “exploding pagers” that killed dozens and wounded thousands of Hezbollah members so severely that they are no longer fit for combat, and the destruction, by the IDF, of between 80% and 90% of Hezbollah’s formerly vast arsenal of 150,000 rockets, missiles, and drones.
But one obstacle to disarming Hezbollah is the terror group’s ability to place its own men in the Lebanese Army, and especially in the intelligence services, where it is able to warn Hezbollah of actions being planned against it. More on Hezbollah’s infiltration of the Lebanese Army, and especially of its intelligence agency, can be found here: “IDF must reconsider its approach to Lebanese army, as Hezbollah infiltration revealed – analysis,” by Peled Arbeli, Jerusalem Post, August
The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has infiltrated the Lebanese Army’s Intelligence Directorate, according to Tal Beeri, head of research at the Alma Center for the Study of Security Challenges in the North. The IDF cannot treat the Lebanese Army as an independent entity, he said in an analysis published Sunday.
Over the years, Hezbollah had “placed a significant number of Shi’ite officers” into prominent leadership positions, effectively taking over control of Lebanon’s military intelligence, Beeri said.
“For years, Hezbollah has operated numerous Shi’ite officers within it for its own benefit and has concentrated efforts to consolidate its influence because of the Intelligence Directorate’s central role in the Lebanese Army and its significant impact on the army’s operational activity,” he said. “Continued cooperation with Hezbollah from within the army compels Israel to take defensive measures.”
“The army commander, with the backing of the president and the Lebanese government, must immediately dismiss and discharge any officer or soldier, in any unit of the Lebanese Army, who is connected to and cooperates with Hezbollah,” Beeri said. “Reassignment to another position is not sufficient.”
How determined are President Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and army commander Rodolph Haykal to crush Hezbollah? They seem dead set on finally bringing a much-weakened Hezbollah to heel, by confiscating its weaponry, but before they do that, they will, in the view of Israeli intelligence analyst Tal Beeri, have to remove Hezbollah’s agents from the Lebanese military’s Intelligence Directorate. So far, the Lebanese government has failed to dismiss any of the high-ranking Hezbollah agents who have infiltrated the Lebanese army’s intelligence.
On August 22, the IDF revealed that Suheil Gharb, the head of military intelligence in southern Lebanon, had been involved in obstructing the investigation into the death of an Irish UNIFIL officer….
Sean Rooney was a 22-year-old Irish officer working for UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, trying to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River, when he was killed by Hezbollah. Hezbollah has refused to hand over either to UNIFIL, or to the Lebanese government, or to the Irish government, Rooney’s killer. In the tug of war between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government over the disposition of this case, Hezbollah has so far prevailed. Rooney’s killer remains at large, protected by Hezbollah. Forcing Hezbollah to surrender the killer would have great significance.
Since Joseph Aoun has become the president of Lebanon, he has taken a much sterner line against Hezbollah than he did as head of the army, insisting that it must be disarmed. One assumes that he is now prepared to dismiss Gharb, a clear Hezbollah operative, from the army as part of a widespread “cleansing” of the ranks to remove all Hezbollah agents.
Due to Hezbollah’s significant influence within the Lebanese Army, Beeri agreed that most of the current, ongoing “disarmament activity” taking place south of the Litani River is happening in coordination with the terror group. “This coordination is reflected in the providing of prior information, coordinating arrival to certain areas, and with high probability even returning “confiscated” weapons to Hezbollah (the “revolving door” method).”
In other words, information about Lebanese army operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon are being passed on to Hezbollah by its well-placed agents in the Lebanese military intelligence. Hezbollah learns about impending operations against it, and can thus prepare either to flee or to fight. Even more disturbing, Hezbollah has also been able, thanks to its agents in the LNA, to have weapons that it has been forced to briefly surrender then returned to the terror group.
Before the Lebanese Army takes on Hezbollah in a major campaign, the Lebanese government needs to identify, and remove, all Hezbollah agents now in the army, especially in high positions in the Intelligence Directorate. There have been too many incidents where Hezbollah has been warned in advance about LNA operations about to be launched against it, too many high-ranking army intelligence officers who have turned out to be members of Hezbollah. President Aoun and Prime Minister Salaf now seem determined to disarm Hezbollah. If they are to have a chance of succeeding, they will first have to expel Hezbollah members from the army intelligence. If they do so, we will know they are serious about disarming all such groups in Lebanon.