Beirut explosion highlights danger of Hezbollah’s guided munitions
The terrorist group also has a special terminal at the Beirut Port where it regularly unloads weapons that are shipped to Lebanon from Iran, the ‘Post’ has learned.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANLebanese riot police walk near burning fire during a protest against the fall in pound currency and mounting economic hardship, in Beirut, Lebanon(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)
In recent years, Hezbollah has been acquiring precision-guided munitions, which make the terrorist group’s arsenal of 150,000 missiles more dangerous. The massive explosion in Beirut that has affected hundreds of thousands of people, injuring thousands and likely killing hundreds, now reveals how dangerous precision-guided weapons could be in the wrong hands.This threat was made more serious by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s comments in 2016 and 2017, when he threatened to target sensitive facilities in Israel where he claimed gas or ammonium nitrate are stored.Hezbollah has not only sought to upgrade its rockets with precision guidance to target Israel’s critical infrastructure, but it has placed rocket-launching sites in Beirut, according to recent reports. The terrorist organization also has a special terminal at the Beirut Port where it regularly unloads weapons that are shipped to Lebanon from Iran, The Jerusalem Post has learned.The containers with the weapons are unloaded by Hezbollah operatives and do not undergo customs inspections like regular cargo. The weapons are then stored for periods of time at the port before they are distributed to Hezbollah bases and storage centers across the country.The dangerous munitions, combined with Hezbollah’s threats to use precision-guided missiles against Israel, may not be linked to the tragic explosion in Beirut. But they reveal the danger Hezbollah poses to the Jewish state and how dangerous its munitions can be to civilian areas.Regarding Israeli airstrikes in Syria, its “targets are precision-guided munitions [PGMs],” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in January at Commentary.Iran has sought to supply Hezbollah with kits for these munitions. Iran is trying to find more clandestine ways to move the kits to Lebanon. Once in the terrorist group’s hands, the kits – which include circuit boards, fins for rockets and software – can be assembled to integrate with its arsenal.THE IDF last year revealed how the PGM project has progressed. Iran had been trying to move whole missiles, with the guidance installed, via Syria. “Most of these efforts were prevented by attacks attributed to Israel,” the IDF said.Tehran then tried to move the kits to Hezbollah and set up factories in Lebanon to convert rockets locally to hide the kits and missiles in Syria on the way to Hezbollah. The IDF published photos of the alleged PMG factory sites in Lebanon last September.The PGM threat needs to be taken seriously, Uzi Rubin, founding director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, wrote in June at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. They can paralyze civilian and military infrastructure and can win wars, he said, adding: “Israel should do everything in its power not only to prevent defeat by them, but to use them to defeat its enemies.”
Once Hezbollah has these weapons, it could launch an operation “firing salvos of precision missiles to paralyze Israel’s air bases,” Rubin wrote. Israel’s air-defense systems, such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling, “will probably be able to destroy most incoming missiles, but not all of them,” he said.Nasrallah has boasted of the precision of Hezbollah’s missiles. According to foreign reports, Hezbollah attempted to receive GPS “suitcase kits” from Iran in February 2019 for upgrading the precision of its missile arsenal.We also know that as far back as 2017, Ynet warned that Iran was using the Iran Deal to upgrade the precision of its rockets. These GPS-guided missiles were turning “dumb” rockets into precision munitions. Iran tested them against ISIS, used them against Kurdish dissidents in 2018 and fired ballistic missiles at a US base in Iraq in January. It also sent ballistic missiles to Iraqi militias in 2018 and 2019.ACCORDING TO the Alma Research Center in July, Hezbollah has 28 launch sites for rockets in Beirut. These sites include Fateh 110 missiles, and “these particular missiles are subject to Hezbollah’s missile-precision project,” the report said. Launch sites are located in southern Beirut, it said.We need to understand the PGM threat and its links to the tragedy in Beirut as part of the same context. Hezbollah’s hijacking of Lebanon’s government helped cause the corruption, irresponsibility and unaccountability that led to the government’s failure to secure a warehouse full of dangerous ammonium nitrate.Hezbollah traffics in the same dangerous chemicals, even if this wasn’t linked to this warehouse. It has hollowed out Lebanon to create smuggling networks, and people are fearful to demand accountability regarding things like a warehouse full of explosive material.The terrorist group has also stockpiled weapons in other places in Beirut. It is building factories to transform rockets into precision munitions. It has threatened to use those rockets against Israeli infrastructure. Nasrallah has said in speeches that he could target Israeli gas storage facilities to harm civilians.That Hezbollah uses other warehouses to store weapons is known; that it uses them in civilian areas is also well known. Any attempt to challenge Hezbollah has been met with assassinations and threats in Lebanon.That Lebanon can unload weapons via its own terminal at Beirut Port shows how unregulated its transfer of dangerous weapons has become.Israel has warned about the PGM threat and Hezbollah’s destabilizing activities. The foreign reports and IDF report last year make clear how serious a threat these weapons have become, as well as the network of illicit storage, corruption and state weakness.
