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Got to love this bit:
"Hezbollah has clashed little with Islamic State fighters in Syria
(TRUE), fighting around Damascus and near the Lebanese border, where the
militant group is less prevalent (TRUE) But it often fights the Nusra
Front, the Qaeda affiliate in Syria, as well as less extreme, Syrian-led
insurgents." Yes, exactly - in other words, Hezbollah spends most of its
time fighting against *the very forces* that are the only ones that have
effectively fought ISIS and driven back out of large parts of Syria
since the beginning of the year. Good job guys.
MK
Though Adversaries on the Surface, U.S. and Hezbollah Share a Goal
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/world/middleeast/though-adversaries-on-the-surface-us-and-hezbollah-share-a-goal-.html
By ANNE BARNARDSEPT. 21, 2014
BEIRUT, Lebanon — They are sworn enemies who insist they will never work
together, but in practice, Hezbollah and the United States are already
working — separately — on a common goal: to stop the extremist Islamic
State from moving into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is the most powerful
military and political player and currently shares with Washington an
interest in stability.
Weeks after Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political party,
helped repel an Islamic State attack on the town of Arsal on the Syrian
border, new American weapons are flowing to help the Lebanese Army —
which coordinates with Hezbollah — to secure the frontier. American
intelligence shared with the army, according to Lebanese experts on
Hezbollah, has helped the organization stop suicide attacks on its
domain in southern Beirut.
“The international community has an interest in isolating the Syria
crisis,” Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah’s newly appointed head of public
relations and a media adviser to its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said last
week in a rare conversation. In the course of the informal hourlong
meeting, he shed light on how the party views the often contradictory
tangle of alliances and interests in Syria’s civil war, many of them in
flux as President Obama contemplates expanding his military campaign
against the Islamic State from Iraq into Syria.
“All have an interest to keep the peace” in Lebanon, Mr. Afif said, but
added, “Everyone has their own ways.”
There are signs that Hezbollah, which the United States lists as a
terrorist organization, may see the fight against the Islamic State as
an opportunity to gain legitimacy by making the case that it is standing
against terrorism.
“We need to open up a new page with the world media, with the Arabs and
internationally,” declared Mr. Afif, a former director of Hezbollah’s
Al-Manar channel. He seemed to be starting the process by becoming the
first senior Hezbollah official in years to speak at length with The New
York Times, in the party’s bright, airy, new external media relations
office.
Even the premises suggested a new attention to outreach. The department’s
previous cramped quarters had contrasted more sharply with the gleaming
studios of the Hezbollah-owned news media that speaks directly to its
followers.
For now, though, Hezbollah officials are paying close and wary attention
to what the United States is doing to repel the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS or ISIL, in the region.
While skeptical of American intentions, they are waiting to see if they
can benefit from American firepower turned against the most alarming new
foe they have faced in years, say several Lebanese analysts with
contacts in the group.
“What Hezbollah wants to see is a genuine, honest, sincere American
military campaign against ISIS,” said Ali Rizk, an analyst with the
Lebanese news channel al-Mayadeen, who has worked as an interpreter of
Mr. Nasrallah’s speeches. “But you have to stress the word genuine.”
Hezbollah and the United States, deeply antagonistic over Israel and
other regional issues, deny any hint of an alliance.
That is especially true in Syria, where even as both condemn extremists,
their broader goals and views sharply diverge.
Hezbollah is an indispensable battlefield ally of President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria, who has long provided the group with a crucial
conduit for arms from Iran. The United States is ramping up aid to
relatively moderate Syrian insurgents bent on ousting Mr. Assad, and
says it will not cooperate with him or his allies Iran and Hezbollah.
Mr. Afif, the Hezbollah official, emphasized that Syrian officials will
view American attacks without coordination as aggression, and that
Hezbollah disapproves of Lebanon’s entry into a United States-led
coalition. But he added, “Of course, Syria benefits from hitting the
terrorist groups.”
He spoke of the United States as having finally come to its senses about
the threat of extremism in Syria. Though Syria’s conflict began with
demonstrations and “just demands,” he said, extremism raised its head
early, abetted by the West in its eagerness to oust Mr. Assad.
“We yelled, ‘Terror, terror, terror,’ and no one believed us,” Mr. Afif
said. “Later, they find out this is the truth.”
He added, addressing Americans, “This beast which you raised up, as in
past cases, you find it’s dangerous for you.”
As much as Hezbollah rejects American influence, its top priority right
now, the analysts say, is to defeat the Islamic State. The group’s
fighters may have shocked the West with the beheadings of two Americans
and a Briton, but they have beheaded scores of Shiites, viewing them as
apostates who deserve death. And the Islamic State is making inroads in
poor and disenfranchised Sunni areas in Lebanon, a country with a
freewheeling cultural diversity, a Shiite majority and a large Christian
population that all provide tempting targets.
That prospect troubles both Hezbollah and the West, which has long made
Lebanon a focus of its interests in the Middle East.
One of Hezbollah’s main concerns is that the American effort, relying on
allies like Saudi Arabia that Hezbollah views as propagators of
extremism, will not be sufficiently serious, analysts say. Like Syrian
officials, it wonders whether the real intention is to attack Mr. Assad’s
forces.
“They are not counting on the Americans,” said Kamel Wazne, an analyst
who studies Hezbollah and American politics.
But Mr. Rizk said that America’s entering the fray could bring not only
de facto American collaboration with Hezbollah, but also covert
coordination through intermediaries, perhaps Iraqi security forces.
He noted that a top Iraqi security official visited Damascus on
Wednesday as the United States scrambled to build its anti-Islamic State
coalition, and that in Iraq, American-backed Kurds have worked against
the group with Iranian-backed Shiite militias.
While the United States cannot ally publicly with Hezbollah without
angering allies and appearing to take sides against Syria’s Sunni
majority, Mr. Rizk said, “What happens underneath is something totally
different.”
With American drones in the air and Hezbollah fighters on the ground, he
said, each can argue “there is not official coordination, but two people
doing different things for the same goal.”
His view, Mr. Rizk said, is that “if the strikes are confined to ISIS,
Hezbollah, even if it might not say so in public, would welcome them.”
Mr. Assad’s opponents blame Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria on behalf
of the government, against a primarily Sunni uprising, for inflaming
sectarian tensions and fueling Sunni extremism. Mr. Assad’s repressive
government, they say, is the magnet bringing jihadists to Syria. But by
the same token, the United States faces difficulties persuading the
opposition to fight the Islamic State instead.
Hezbollah supporters argue that only it, along with Mr. Assad and Iran,
can be counted on to fight extremists, in part because they are Shiites,
and vulnerable as a minority Muslim sect. Pro-government fighters from
the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism that forms Mr. Assad’s base, are
also increasingly rallying around Shiite identity, using Shiite
religious symbols and slogans alongside Syrian flags.
Hezbollah has clashed little with Islamic State fighters in Syria,
fighting around Damascus and near the Lebanese border, where the
militant group is less prevalent. But it often fights the Nusra Front,
the Qaeda affiliate in Syria, as well as less extreme, Syrian-led
insurgents.
The analysts said Hezbollah might move its fighters east to battle the
Islamic State in its strongholds, though Mr. Rizk said it would keep its
role quiet and portray the fighting as being done by Syrian forces.
Mr. Wazne said the United States, having decided Sunni jihadists are its
top threat in Syria, should rethink Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah is not representing an imminent threat against the world,” he
said. “It represents a threat against Israel, as Israel represents a
threat against Lebanon. But Hezbollah is not going to threaten the U.S.
and Europe. Nobody said Hezbollah is cutting off heads.”
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting
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