OPINION: The West should welcome the weakening of Hezbollah

Last Friday’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah was a potentially game-changing event in the modern Middle East. Nasrallah was a central figure in Iran’s ‘ring of fire’ strategy, one designed to surround Israel with genocidal terrorists on every border and whose aim was to destabilise, demoralise and eventually destroy Israel.

His elimination was merely the latest in a series of jaw dropping and audacious operations by Israeli forces to degrade Hezbollah, including attacks on its rocket arsenal, the explosions using pagers and walkie talkies and the killing of Radwan commanders. Israel has also commenced a limited incursion into southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah targets there. Taken together, they have left the so-called Party of God leaderless, demoralised and in disarray.

Yet if western leaders had their way, these operations would not have happened. This is because the West has been addicted to imposing a ceasefire, both in Gaza and Lebanon, that would neutralize Israel’s ability to shackle its enemies and re-establish its deterrence.

A day before Nasrallah’s killing, the US, UK, the EU and some Arab nations issued a joint statement about the crisis in Lebanon. It said that the current hostilities were ‘intolerable’ and presented an ‘unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation’. Israel was being asked to forego the use of force and put its trust in international guarantees and agreements.

This is a grotesque inversion of reality. Instead of piling pressure on Israel to desist attacking an aggressor, western diplomats should have insisted on the unconditional removal of Hezbollah from south Lebanon. Since 8th October, the Lebanese terror group has bombarded northern Israel with rockets and missiles, causing tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes and live as refugees in their own country.

More importantly, Hezbollah has long been in violation of an already agreed diplomatic solution, namely Security Council resolution 1701.

This calls for the disarmament and removal of Hezbollah south of the Litani river and its replacement with the Lebanese army and UNIFIL. Any truce now must be based on implementing this agreement and, until then, Israel is entitled to apply military pressure in pursuit of this goal.

As a major supporter of Putin’s barbaric assault on Ukraine through the export of drone technology, Iran has put itself on the side of imperialist, anti-western autocracies

Far from decrying the ‘escalation’ in the region, a word which is used almost always when Israel attempts to defend itself, the West should applaud its efforts in standing against Hezbollah.

The operations carried out  against the terrorists have been among the most brilliantly conceived and meticulously executed operations in the history of counter terrorism. They showcase the great ingenuity and persistence of Israeli intelligence almost a year to the day when it failed so spectacularly in Gaza.

They are also a humiliation for Hezbollah’s patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country already reeling from the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Iran is far from being a beacon of stability in the region, as is sometimes claimed. It remains the world’s leading  state sponsor of terror and the prime architect of extremism in the Middle East.

Moreover, as a major supporter of Putin’s barbaric assault on Ukraine through the export of drone technology, Iran has put itself on the side of imperialist, anti-western autocracies. It is also the architect of a nuclear weapons programme that, if it ever came to fruition, would spell disaster for western interests in the region. Instead of empowering the Islamic Republic, western powers should oppose its malevolent plots and aggressive policies.

There is another reason to celebrate the lethal weakening of Hezbollah.  The terror group has carried out many attacks against western forces, including the suicide truck bombings of the US Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 and the US and French marine barracks in the same year, as well as the hijacking of TWA 847 in 1985.

Nasrallah should be seen, not as a Muslim Gandhi, but as a mass murdering psychopath intent on spreading an insidious brand of Shi’ite fanaticism across the region.

His sudden demise should be welcomed as an essential step in providing long term security and stability in the Middle East.