An Iranian-backed terror group plans on having up to half a million missiles aimed at Israel within a year, American Military News reports. The claim comes from militants tied to Hezbollah, the Iranian-controlled terror group found along Israel’s border with Lebanon. The missiles would be part of continuing efforts by the Islamic Republic to increase the presence of advanced missile technology in countries surrounding Israel.
The militant group claims to already have deployed more than 70,000 long-range missiles across Syria and Lebanon, but the group expressed its desire to increase that number to at least 500,000 over the next year. The massive response is a product of a recent confrontation between an Iranian drone and Israeli forces that escalated tensions and hinted at a possible confrontation between the two countries.
The constant threat of war has influenced Iran to secretly move weapons across the region, and Iran seems to be supplying those weapons to terrorist groups found along Israel’s border. At this time, Israel does not appear to have a direct response to Iran’s activity. Middle Eastern experts spoke on Iran’s possible strategy, which may be to line Israel’s northern borders with advanced missiles ahead of a full-scale confrontation with Israel.
According to MEMRI, a pro-Hezbollah publication in Lebanon,” Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hezbollah has deployed throughout Syria and are aimed at Israel.”
“Syria and Hezbollah will wage a ‘joint missile campaign’ against Israel, and… Iranian experts are ready to launch missiles at Israel from every part of Lebanon and Syria,” the outlet continued.
According to the article on the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese website Dahiya, Assad has instructed his army to help Hezbollah construct and camouflage missile silos across the country; moreover, intense activity is underway to bring more Iranian missiles to Syria via Iraq, so that within a year Hezbollah will have 500,000 missiles in Syria, in addition to the ones it has already deployed in Lebanon. Assad [even] announced that this time the Arab Syrian army and Hezbollah will carry out a joint missile campaign against Israel, in which Syria will fire long-range Scud missiles, of which Syria has 1,600.
“The enemy is now surrounded along 450 kilometers of its border by Hezbollah missiles and Iranian experts [who are ready] to fire these missiles into occupied Palestine from every part of Lebanon and especially from every part of Syria. Hezbollah wishes to expand its missile arsenal in Syria, so that, if the war lasts a long time, it will have large reserves of Iranian long-range missiles. That is why intense activity is underway along the Iran-Iraq-Syria route to transport the Iranian missiles [to Syria]. Iran has over two million long-range missiles, and it is acting to provide Hezbollah with an arsenal of long-range missiles to be deployed throughout Syria. The missiles have a range of 1,100 km and can reach occupied Palestine from every point in Syria. If the Israeli enemy remains idle and does not wage war for a year, Hezbollah will deploy half a million missiles on Syrian soil, in addition to [its missiles in] Lebanon, but especially throughout Syria, so that Israel’s planes will find it difficult to target Hezbollah’s bases there.”
It seems that Israel felt genuinely threatened by Hezbollah’s growing missile arsenal in Syria, especially since Syria is very large, and that is why it relayed a clear warning that Hezbollah’s missiles must be removed and that the transfer of any more missiles from Iran to Hezbollah must be prevented – otherwise it will start a war against Hezbollah in both Lebanon and Syria.
The article was published following reports on Israeli airstrikes in Syria on February 7, and just before the incident in which Israel fired on Iranian military facilities in Syria following the penetration of an Iranian drone into Israeli territory.