Hezbollah simulates takeover of Beirut

According to the Jerusalem Post, “Hezbollah members and allied parties carried out a two-hour exercise early in the morning Tuesday at 12 different strategic points in Beirut, meant to show a potential first response to the commission findings surrounding the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.”

No violence erupted during the drill. The militants were unarmed and carried hand-held radios.

Sources close to Hezbollah reported the drill was “a real exercise to test the readiness of any such plan to takeover Beirut and its periphery, including entries, the port, waters, and the airport.”

This threat comes at a time when Prime Minister Saad Hariri is struggling to form a new government after Hezbollah ministers and their allies resigned last week.

Earlier today, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia abandoned its efforts to resolve the dispute between Hariri and Hezbollah, calling the situation “dangerous.”

The dispute is over Lebanon’s support of the UN tribunal that is expected to indict several Hezbollah members for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The terrorist group said it would treat the political deadlock differently after the UN tribunal released its report, raising fears that Hezbollah will use violence to impose its will—just like it did in 2008.