“Scud Missiles in the Hands of Hezbollah Could Be a Game-Changer”

Hanan Awarekeh

15/04/2010 Once again Washington expresses concerns towards “Lebanon’s security” fearing that the arms of the Lebanese Resistance, which has defended and still defending the land against the Israeli aggressions, could harm the country without taking into consideration the Israeli threats and the daily violations for the Lebanese sovereignty.

According to the US administration “Israel has the right of self defense” and that right justifies its continuous armament while Lebanon has no such right in the US and Israeli dictionary.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said that the alleged transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Lebanon's Hezbollah, if true, would put Lebanon at significant risk. "If such an action has been taken, and we continue to analyze this issue ... clearly it potentially puts Lebanon at significant risk," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.

On Tuesday, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam reported that Syria has recently shipped ballistic Scud missiles to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, The White House said it has raised concerns with Syria about the reports about the transfer of Scud missiles. It said that Washington has relayed its concerns to the relevant bodies and believes measures should be taken to remove any threat, as this could undermine stability in the region.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday "we have relayed our concerns at the highest levels about weapons that could destabilize the region."

Israel this week accused Syria of giving Scud missiles to Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement that defeated Israeli enemy in the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Gibbs told reporters, "We have an unbreakable bond with the Israeli people and in ensuring their security."

Israeli officials say the introduction of Scuds could alter the strategic balance with Hezbollah.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, speaking in Paris, charged that Syria is playing a double game, talking about peace, while it is delivering Scuds to Hezbollah to threaten Israel, according to a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday quoted US administration officials as saying that the tension between Israel and Syria following reports of arms deliveries would not prevent the US from restoring its envoy to Damascus, and only strengthens the need to do so.

According to the report, American officials who have been updated on the intelligence collected in the matter confirmed that Israel and the US believe Syria is behind the transfer of weapons, which were manufactured using either North Korean or Russian technology.

In an interview with the paper, Hezbollah sources denied the claims and said this was an Israeli attempt to divert the world's attention from the construction in occupied east Jerusalem and the settlements.

In Washington, the Syrian Embassy dismissed the allegations saying Israel was making such claims in order to cover up for its military strengthening and accused it of trying to divert attention from questions about Israel's nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear arms, though it does not confirm nor deny this.

Israel charges that most of Hezbollah's weapons, including rockets, come through neighboring Syria, which is a main sponsor of Hezbollah, along with Iran. But Peres' statement was the first time Israel has publicly accused Damascus of providing Scuds.

At the United Nations, deputy U.S. ambassador Alejandro Wolff alluded to the reported transfer of Scuds from Syria to Hezbollah. "We are increasingly concerned about the sophistication of the weaponry being transferred," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is interested in restoring U.S. relations with Syria, frozen after charges from the previous administration that Damascus was aiding anti-American forces in neighboring Iraq.

Some Republican senators have said they may hold up the confirmation of Robert Ford, the Obama administration's nominee to be the first U.S. ambassador to Syria in five years, over the concerns.

Hezbollah pelted Israel with nearly 4,000 unguided Katyusha rockets during the 2006 war, causing widespread damage and dozens of casualties in the Zionist entity. Scud missiles have several times the range and explosive firepower of Katyusha rockets and would pose a much more serious threat.

Boaz Ganor, an expert from Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center, said Scud missiles in the hands of Hezbollah could be a game-changer, not only because of their potential for damage. "In Syrian hands, it was rationally administered, and now it's not clear that in the hands of Hezbollah it will be administered rationally," he said.

Israel has deployed an anti-missile system called Arrow, designed to intercept missiles from Iran and possibly Syria. It has successfully tested a system to stop shorter-range missiles and rockets like Scuds and Katyushas, as well as homemade rockets fired from Gaza, but it is not yet operational. However Israeli media published a study three months ago about the effectiveness of the Iron Dome saying it is certainly an impressive technological achievement; however the problem is that the success of iron dome does nothing to ease the threat of Qassams on Sderot, or the threat of the short range Katyushas in the hands of Hezbollah.

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, iron dome has brought nothing new to the table, and it has not solved the inherent problems of a defense system based on missiles trying to intercept enemy rockets. Therefore the rejoicing and the preening in the wake of the test's success hide the far bleaker truth.

Haaretz added, “The public relations campaign accompanying the test is full of deceptions and half-truths. It has ignored the flaws in the systems and has created illusions. This is because iron dome will not protect the communities directly surrounding Gaza nor, apparently, locales even further away from the Strip.”

“In likely scenarios of rocket fire on the home front, the stock of iron dome missiles is liable to run out way before the rocket barrages end. And in any case, because of the high cost of using iron dome for defense, the Palestinians in the south and Hezbollah in the north can defeat us at the bank, without even launching a single rocket,” the report continued.

This truth was discovered in 2008 by Israeli cabinet ministers, who decided to fortify all the locales less than four and a half kilometers away from the Strip. This known fact did not deter the security establishment representatives from deluding the inhabitants of the "Gaza envelope" into thinking that the success of the iron dome test means protection for them.

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