Lebanon: Will Hezbollah cause a war with Israel to regain its popularity!

A new military assessment reported by Israel’s Channel 12 revealed that the Israeli military believes there is a “reasonable prospect” of confronting Lebanon’s Hezbollah as tensions escalate amid U.S.-brokered talks over a maritime dispute.

Hezbollah threats

The dispute over competing claims over offshore gas fields escalated in June after Israel moved a production ship near the Karich offshore field, which is partially claimed by its northern neighbor. American mediator Amos Hochstein had indicated on Friday that progress had been made in the indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel, but said that more work was needed to reach a final agreement. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah threatened the gas extraction facilities, which prompted the Israeli army to intensify defenses and activities in the region, according to the document quoted by Channel 12 network. According to the document, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah may be at war with Israel in order to regain his popularity in Lebanon. The report was prepared by the Israeli Northern Command, but it did not publish the actual document, and it only mentioned certain parts of it.

Nasrallah is isolated

According to Channel 12, the Israeli army document said that Hezbollah has become “greedy and corrupt” and “loses support and is under severe criticism in Lebanon,” and also noted that Hezbollah’s leadership is losing control over military activists on the ground. The paper continued that regarding Nasrallah himself, the document said that following the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Nasrallah had become isolated, noting that through his threats Nasrallah “is trying to praise himself by bringing gas” to Lebanon and might seek war to extricate himself from his internal difficulties.