Iran attempts to move thousands of militants to border areas between Syria and Lebanon… Why?

An informed source revealed to the American magazine “Time” on Monday that Iran “is working to move thousands of militants to the border areas between Syria and Lebanon,” and that “in the past two months, several thousand militants have already left Iraq for Syria,” noting that this indicates Tehran is “preparing to strengthen its deterrence capabilities.”

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This comes after the death of Hezbollah‘s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, last Friday in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a stronghold of the Iranian-funded organization. The same strike also killed the deputy commander of operations for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Abbas Nilforoushan.

The American magazine quoted Jonathan Lord, former Pentagon official and director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security: “Iran is not fighting for its proxies; rather, its proxies are fighting for it,” as published by “Al-Hurra.” He added, “The (Iranian) regime is more concerned with preserving itself and will not intentionally put itself at risk.”

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An informed source had previously told the American agency “Bloomberg” that Iran is attempting to “move thousands of fighters to the border areas between Lebanon and Syria.”

The unnamed source added that “Iraq, along with Syria, will turn into main channels for Hezbollah,” noting that the latter “has built a network of tunnels on the Syrian-Lebanese border, and some of its leaders have fled to Syria.”

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Dina Esfandiary, Senior Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, stated: “Iran will have to respond, as a larger group of people are calling for revenge.” She also noted in the “Time” magazine that the Iranian regime “does not want to get involved in a conflict it cannot win, so it will have to measure its reactions.”

It is worth noting that the Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday that at least 95 people were killed and 172 injured in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours.