WarSclerotic

As Syria prepared to surrender its chemical weapons in compliance with international efforts, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan quoted a Lebanese parliamentarian on Sunday as saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad has already transferred large stores of chemical weapons to his ally, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

According to the report, Hezbollah now has long-range missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads.

Quoting Khaled Zaher from the anti-Hezbollah al-Mustaqbal party, the paper reported that the transfer of weapons was overseen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Zaher reportedly added that these missiles were spread out in various locations, some of them underground.

Zaher linked his report to recent remarks by Nasrallah, who warned that Israel would soon face things it has never faced before. He specifically noted that Hezbollah’s missiles could strike the central Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

“These missile bases pose a threat to the stability of the entire Middle East,” Zaher told Al Watan. He explained that this serves Iran’s nuclear efforts, even though “the international community has been asked repeatedly to monitor Hezbollah’s military sites.”

Israeli officials, however, cast doubt on the report. Last week, a senior official in Jerusalem said that Hezbollah was wary of accepting chemical weapons from Syria. “Nasrallah knows that Israel would see it as a red line, and that the IDF would respond,” Israeli media sources quoted the official as saying.

“Hezbollah knows that the moment it gets its hands on unconventional weapons, it will draw fire onto itself, and not just from Israel,” the official said. “Hezbollah is facing a lot of challenges, not just with unending attacks on its forces in Lebanon but also with attempts to infiltrate its defenses in the Dahieh in Beirut.”