Armed and dangerous militias

The mushrooming of militias in the Middle East is one of the roots of chaos and instability in the region. Researchers and scholars understand that regional crises are generally linked to the presence of weapons flowing to militias directly affiliated with or materially and militarily backed by other countries.

These militias engage in wars, conflicts, and attacks that make it enormously hard to restore the role of the nation-state, like in Yemen or Libya, as examples.

In a glaring testament to the threat posed by militias and interstate conflict in the Middle East, a recent study by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv found that the ballistic arsenal of Lebanese Hezbollah is far larger than that of most NATO armies. Hezbollah has approximately 130,000 missiles, according to the study.

This includes supersonic cruise and surface-sea missiles. Hezbollah had acquired them these last years from Syrian army weapons depots. The study notes that with Iranian support, militias are also trying to develop precise ballistic capabilities.

A question arises here: How is it possible for the international community, represented by collective security institutions, to stand idly by after all the painful historical experiences of war and violence?

Would it be reasonable to remain silent or simply issue from time to time a declaration or resolution to condemn or denounce such behavior without acting effectively to deter authors of threats to international peace and security and violators of the UN Charter and international norms?

As a reminder, some Iranian leaders and officials had already spoken about the occupation of four Arab capitals without any comment from an international official. The answer to this dubious silence has been the continuation of Iran’s interventionist policy and the scaling up of financial, military and material aid to the mullahs’ militias in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.

The Lebanese Hezbollah represents one of the most flagrant cases that reveal the inability of the international community and the failure of the mullahs’ regime to abide by international law. Lebanon’s Hezbollah is one of Iran’s external arms. It was the mullahs’ first experience in proxy war strategy.

Copy-cat experiences were then applied in other Arab countries with a high level armament capacity that depends on many factors there’s no room to talk about here. But Hezbollah remains the most obvious example of this odious Iranian strategy.

It is a force that hijacks the entire Lebanese state for the benefit of Iranian financiers and sponsors. But it is also a threat that goes beyond Lebanese geography through its interventions in Syria and its suspicious relations with other armed groups in the region, and which brings about destruction to the Lebanese state on numerous occasions by waging unequal wars with Israel.

The latter considers it as a strong threat to its security. This makes the security of the Lebanese state and people hostage to the whims and designs of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of this militia. The chief has already acknowledged his total and absolute loyalty to the Iranian Supreme Leader.

Back in September 2019, in a televised speech, he explicitly stated that he would not be neutral if Iran were at war. He stressed his loyalty to Khamenei and his decisions, putting Lebanon, this Arab country not short of problems and conflicts, face to face with the flames of any war that the mullahs want and the Lebanese don’t.

It is astonishing that the world remains silent on the Iranian mullahs’ plan, to the point that Hezbollah’s arms depots on Lebanese territory have been transformed into arsenals superior to those of some NATO armies. The danger in this case does not only concern Israel. It affects the Lebanese state itself.

The party leverages this destructive force politically in Lebanon, imposing its will at gunpoint and occasionally demonstrating it. This is especially the case when it feels the need to gain more influence on the Lebanese scene. The threat also affects the entire Arab region.

The expansion of the party has given the mullahs the audacity to replicate the model in other Arab countries. Lebanese Hezbollah has become the main point of reference for militias deployed, financed and supplied with weapons in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. In Yemen, there is another model of militancy financed by the Iranian mullahs’ regime.

The Houthi terrorist militia have seized the Yemeni capital and some provinces. It continues to resist attempts to restore constitutional legitimacy. From time to time, it even launches military attacks on Saudi Arabia’s territory. In Iraq, there are also other cloned models of Hezbollah.

It sounds like solving most Middle East problems and insecurity dilemmas begins with breaking up this militia chaos and rebuilding national sovereignty. The violation of sovereignty continues to be one of the causes of the “uncreative chaos” experienced by many Arab states.