ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Hezbollah has been Iran’s proxy ground force in the Islamic Republic’s fight to prop up the Shia, Assad regime with the Russian Federation’s help. The terrorist army has been heavily involved in the fighting against the anti-Assad opposition fighters supported by the United States. Hezbollah has gained enormous battlefield experience in large scale, mobile warfare and enhanced its capabilities from the small unit tactics it specialized in during earlier conflicts against Israel in Lebanon.

There are signs that Hezbollah is using the civil war to prepare for the inevitable conflict against the Jewish state. Primarily, these concerns emanate from Hezbollah’s use of the Golan Heights to store large numbers of sophisticated weapons near the Israeli border.

“Like other foreign and domes­tic actors, Hezbollah has seized on the Syrian civil war to improve its position in the country and the surrounding region,” the U.S.-based global security consultancy Stratfor observed in an April 6 analysis. Stratfor amplified recent reports that Hezbollah has been setting up bases on the Golan and in other parts of southern Syria where it has strong forces on the ground sup­porting the regime of Syrian Presi­dent Bashar al-Assad just as its patron Iran does. If Assad manages to stay in power, he will likely have to surrender con­trol of the Golan to Iran and Hezbol­lah to threaten Israel. The efforts by Hezbollah “to ex­pand and solidify its control in Syria will only increase in the future,” Stratfor noted, reports UPI.

In addition, Russia has given Hezbollah access to its large ammunition and weapons depots in Syria in exchange for intelligence gleaned from the fighting on the ground for use in targeting during Russian airstrikes.

Iran continues to call for the destruction of the Jewish State as it moves towards acquiring a nuclear capability allowed by the nuclear ‘deal’ signed by the Obama administration.

Fighting the war to keep Assad in power may be part of Iran’s long-term plan to carry through on its vow to destroy Israel and “wipe it off the map.”

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