– Weapons and leaders can be replaced, said former ambassador to Israel Kåre Aas to news early Saturday morning. It was a short time before the news came that Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed in an Israeli bomb attack in Beirut. But the fact that the leader of Hezbollah for 32 years has now been killed is a loss that cannot be easily replaced. – Famous, well-known, iconic – He is a famous, well-known, iconic type of leader in the Middle East, says historian and Middle East researcher Marte Heian-Engdahl. Marte Heian-Engdahl Photo: Alf Simensen / news – He has been an important person for many years. He is one of the few who appears regularly alongside the Iranian leadership. Thus his power and influence are lifted. Heian-Engdahl nevertheless believes that this is a case of an individual in a large movement. Those who are leaders in Hezbollah and similar movements know very well that they are very vulnerable. – Far from reality – So expecting that this will cause Hezbollah to change its assessment or analysis of the situation or its view of Israel, that would be completely far from reality, says Heian-Engdahl. Senior lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo, Dag Tuastad says Nasrallah was a strategist who was very trusted by the Shia Muslims. Shiites make up around 40 percent of Lebanon’s population. – Under him you got a leader who was eventually perhaps the strongest in the entire Middle East. He was seen as a symbol of the resistance struggle among both Shiites and Sunnis. – A hero among the Palestinians – Nasrallah was also a hero among the Palestinians, Dag Tuastad believes. Dag Tuastad Photo: Alf Simensen / news Dag Tuastad says that Hezbollah is the party with the most votes in elections in Lebanon. In the Dahieh district of Beirut, they have their own banks, schools and health clinics. They even have gas stations and construction companies. So it’s kind of a state within a state. – And it is a product of Lebanon being a kind of robber baron, where most people are corrupt. Hezbollah has a recruitment base that is completely different from other organizations. You cannot remove Hezbollah, says Tuastad. “More weapons and more fighters” Engdahl believes there is a key difference between the situation for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. In Lebanon, they can easily bring in more weapons and more fighters. The border with Syria is completely porous, says Engdahl. Hezbollah has a much larger arsenal of weapons than Hamas in Gaza. Children in southern Lebanon wearing Hezbollah uniforms. The picture was taken during a parade in the village of Saksakien on October 18, 2015. Photo: ALI HASHISHO / Reuters – How weakened do you think Hezbollah is now with the latest paging attacks? It has weakened their communication. And now with these attacks, how does the group stand now? – So it’s hard on them to have a week like that. Both in terms of communication and the fact that it seems that there are a lot of weapon depots and launch pads that have been destroyed. And large parts of the leadership. Nevertheless, Heian-Engdahl does not believe that Hezbollah is greatly weakened in the long term. – So it is by no means the case that Hizbullah has been set back very much. But this is very difficult to know, because the intelligence information is mostly only available to Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces. What is Iran doing now? Both Heian-Engdahl and Tuastad believe Iran faces a difficult dilemma if it is true that Nasrallah has been killed. – Iran has a big dilemma. They were never meant to be a supporter of Hezbollah. Hezbollah was supposed to be a deterrent against attacking Iran. The dilemma facing Iran is whether they should now scale up militarily, which is against their interests. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the podium in the UN building in New York this week. Photo: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO / AFP – They had Hezbollah and other allied militia groups to avoid getting involved in a war directly. The question is what they are going to do now. It is difficult to speculate. But then there may be different interests within Iran. You have the Revolutionary Guard, where there are elements that say that now we must strike. Then we have a new president who has talked about reconciliation, says Tuastad. Heian-Engdahl also emphasizes the dilemma that the leadership in Iran is now facing. – Iran is now in a very difficult balancing act. It is a bit of a dilemma to consider whether you should continue not to respond harshly, in a way, to Israel. Or if you are going to escalate and then risk losing. Hezbollah is indeed a very important part of the so-called resistance axis that Iran has established as a resistance project against Israel, says Marte Heian-Engdahl to news. Published 28.09.2024, at 13.31 Updated 28.09.2024, at 13.46
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– Nasrallah was an iconic leadership figure – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
