BEIRUT — Under the name "We Will Pass", Hezbollah on Sunday carried out a military exercise in the town of Armati, 20 kilometers from the "Blue Line" separating Lebanon and Israel, in the presence of local and international media.

The military exercise came days before the 23rd anniversary of Liberation Day, corresponding to May 25, and involved 200 members of the party who used live and heavy weapons, and reviewed rocket launchers, as well as a virtual simulation of the process of storming the occupation territory by blowing up the separation wall.

After the end of the exercise, the head of the Executive Council in Hezbollah Hashem Safi al-Din: "You saw today a symbolic part of the readiness of the resistance," and threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying: "If you think about expanding your aggression to undermine the equations that we made with our blood and our ability, we will be ready to rain you with our accurate missiles and all our weapons, and you will witness black days that you have never seen," and considered that "there is no need to display accurate missiles, because the enemy will see their action in the heart of his entity if he commits any folly." It goes beyond the rules of the game."

Hezbollah exercise on the Israeli border in which 200 Hezbollah operatives participated (French)

Maneuvering conditions

Militarily, retired Brigadier General Hisham Jaber believes that although the exercise aims to train resistance elements, show weapons and simulate a virtual enemy, it also carried multiple messages to the near and the Israeli enemy, "to show a model of some of Hezbollah's enormous capabilities, in defense of Lebanon first, and in affirmation of the policy of unity of the arenas with Palestine second."

Jaber, who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Public Relations, believes that Israel, which is currently reckless, will inevitably be alarmed by such a maneuver, because it harbors a problematic question: "Who will start the war first?"

"Because Hizbullah will not be the initiator of the war, for regional and internal reasons, the exercise is part of Iran's regional messages, especially since it came a day after the arrival of the 86th patrol of the Iranian army to the first maritime zone in the port of Bandar Abbas," he said.

Jaber also believes that Israel does not want to be the first bullet fired at Lebanon, but rather wants to lure Hezbollah into initiating war, if it does not receive international and American cover in particular.

Hezbollah military exercise named "We will cross" (Reuters)

Several messages

Jaber agrees with political analyst close to Hezbollah Wassim Bazzi, who believes that the maneuver came to perpetuate the balance of terror with Israel, which fears Hezbollah's strength and ability to destroy its oil and gas platforms.

So Bazzi sees key messages for the maneuver:

  • Consolidating the policy of deterrence against Israel in timing and form, after the violent attack on Gaza.
  • Prevent the enemy from violating the rules of engagement.
  • Restraining Israel from singling out Islamic Jihad based on the unity and cohesion of squares.
  • Blocking any potential Israeli adventure as it did with the Palestinian Jihad.
  • A message of reassurance to his grassroots that reacted strongly to the maneuver.

The exercise saw the use of live and heavy weapons, a parade of rocket launchers (Reuters)

Internal crisis

Internally, and after the meeting of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati with the United Nations Special Coordinator Joanna and Ronika, on Monday, Mikati said: "The Lebanese government rejects any appearance that constitutes a derogation from the authority and sovereignty of the state, and the problem related to the issue of Hizbullah's weapons is linked to a reality that needs a comprehensive national consensus."

Hezbollah's political opponents also rejected the maneuver, for example, the Lebanese Forces Party, through its deputy Ghiath Yazbek, considered that the maneuver constituted a continuation of the party's coup against the state, as a regular army that owns a statelet. Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel described Hizbullah's maneuvers as a message of defiance to the Lebanese first, and the Arab summit second.

In the same context, political analyst Amin Kammourieh recalls what was stated in the statement of the Arab summit in Jeddah on Lebanon, which stated "the affirmation of the right of the Lebanese to liberate or recover the Shebaa farms, the Lebanese hills of Kfar Shuba and the Lebanese part of the town of Ghajar, and their right to resist any aggression by legitimate means."

This assertion, according to Qamouriyeh, may be read by Hezbollah as an implicit Arab recognition of Lebanon's right to defend itself and regain its territory from Israel through resistance, because the Lebanese army does not have its capabilities.

Kammouria – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the maneuver represented a show of strength at home and abroad, on the basis that "the party is the strongest and most capable Lebanese, and that the change of regional alliances will not be at the expense of its presence and strength, despite its consideration and coordination of its ally Iran and its interests."

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's visit last month to Point Zero of the Lebanese-Israeli border, where he reiterated his country's stance in support of Hezbollah, appearing to remind Israel that it is besieged by Iran's allies in the region between Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

Kammourieh expects the internal debate to continue, as usual, over Hizbullah's legitimacy, given that its military capabilities surpass Lebanon itself, without affecting what is enshrined in the rules of engagement.