WikiLeak: ‘Iran telecom’ was taking over Lebanon
In another WikiLeak disclosure, Lebanon’s Western-backed government told the U.S. that “Iran telecom” was taking over the country when in April 2008 it discovered a secret Hezbollah communications network operating across the country, according to a U.S. State Department cable.
Hezbollah’s fiber optics network, reportedly financed by Iran, ran from Beirut, into southern Lebanon, through the Bekaa valley and into the far north of the country, covering Palestinian camps and Hezbollah training camps as well as Christian areas, the Lebanese minister of communications, Marwan Hamadeh, told the Americans. He said that the Iranian Fund for the Reconstruction of Lebanon financed the network. The group was accused of laying telecommunications lines in tandem with the rebuilding of roads and bridges.
“Hamadeh highlights the system as a strategic victory for Iran since it creates an important Iranian outpost in Lebanon, bypassing Syria,” Washington was told. “He sees the value for the Iranians as strategic, rather than technical or economic. The value for Hezbollah is the final step in creating a nation state. Hezbollah now has an army and weapons; a television station; an education system; hospitals; social services; a financial system; and a telecommunications system.”
Hamadeh said the U.S. cable was a story full of “slanders and fabrications.”
It was in May 2008 that Iran solidified its control of Lebanon after the Lebanese government took steps to restrict connections between Hezbollah and Iran and launched an investigation into the Iran-built telecommunications network. Iran, treating the moves as an act of war, quickly supported Hezbollah in a massive show of strength, rapidly overwhelming the streets of West Beirut. Gerald Flurry and Joel Hilliker wrote around that time:
After its display of force in Beirut, Hezbollah did something extraordinary: It turned its new gains back over to the Lebanese Army. The message: Iran will not tolerate attacks on Hezbollah’s power and military infrastructure in Lebanon—yet it is not interested in taking over formal governance of the nation. All it needs is a weapon to unleash against Israel at some point yet future. Hezbollah already proved its value to that end in the war against Israel during the summer of 2006.
A political agreement was then made that gave veto power to Hezbollah, consolidating and legitimizing the group’s victory. In elections since then, Lebanon’s ruling alliance has continued to accommodate Hezbollah and its demands.
The impotence of the U.S. and Israel in the face of Iran’s inroads into Lebanon and other countries further exposes American weakness and Iran’s ascendancy.
