Don't Underestimate Iranian Meddling in Lebanon and its Military Assistance to Hizbullah

Several weeks ago I presented the scenario of Iranian and North Korean engineers building tunnels for Hizbullah under the border into Israel. Recent articles indicate that the Iranian assistance extends into other military areas, including SIGINT (Signal Intelligence).

Israel's Defense Forces got a bitter taste of Iran's commitment to the war against Israel when an Iranian-supplied (and probably Iranian-launched) C-802 anti-ship missile slammed into the Israeli corvette Hanit sailing off the coast of Lebanon during the 2006 war. Four sailors were killed.

Now two articles published this week indicate that Iran utilized drones against the IDF as well as electronic/network warfare. Today Ha'aretz runs a lengthy analysis on 50 German companies assisting Iran's nuclear program. The article includes this paragraph:

The success of the Iranian arms campaign was witnessed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Ali Mobaraki, an Iranian who managed Zenith Rollers Germany, a print roller company in Dusseldorf, orchestrated the transfer of 10 satellite navigation systems to Iran, with the help of his father, who owns Zenith, and a British engineer living in Germany since 1986. This type of global positioning system (GPS) is routinely found in unmanned aerial vehicles used to survey or attack enemy territory. FAKT, a German news program, reported last year that navigation systems used in Iranian drones employed by Hizbullah against Israel in the Lebanon war were manufactured by a company in the south German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Earlier this week Aviation Week published the widely reported story, U.S. Electronic Surveillance Monitored Israeli Attack On Syria. It concluded that Israel's sophisticated "network attack and electronic hacking capability is an operational part of the Israeli Defense Force's arsenal of digital weapons."

But the article included this tidbit, pointing to Iranian/Syrian/Hizbullah capabilities: "Israel is not alone in recent demonstrations of network warfare. Syria and Hizbullah revealed some basic expertise during the Lebanon conflict last year."

As Lebanon teeters on the brink of a new implosion, we shouldn't lose sight of the thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops now based in Lebanon. W. Thomas Smith, Jr. reported recently that 2,000 - 3,000 of Iran's most dangerous forces are in Lebanon.

Whether Syria's Bashar Assad attends the Annapolis meeting or not, look for him to put Lebanon into a tail-spin while Washington, Israel and many Arab leaders are focusing on the one-day, media-spinning diplomatic exercise.

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