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Nicholas Noe considers a final Hezbollah showdown

Phan Nguyen18 July 2011

In the National Interest, Nicholas Noe, editor of Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, examines the options for Hezbollah in the face of “a major existential challenge.” Its two major sponsors, the Iranian and Syrian regimes, are currently besieged, while Hezbollah’s support for Bashar al-Assad is eroding its popular support in the Middle East.

With its back to the wall and its options limited, Noe considers what Hezbollah is liable to do:

Should Assad’s multiplying list of enemies, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, choose to go in for the kill, either bluntly or obliquely, Hezbollah, it now seems evident after meeting with party officials, is prepared to use all necessary means to fight back, and fight back widely.

A collapse of the Levant leg of the Resistance Axis is simply unacceptable for Hezbollah. And seeing no reasonable options for escaping such an outcome in a “just” manner (a course that was available in March 2000 when the party was ready to lay down its arms), Hezbollah will have little choice but to become a part and parcel of one last climactic conflict.

Noe concludes that other political actors, including the US and European powers, must carefully consider the destructive course they are currently pursuing in Middle East which will “in all probability, bring great destruction to the region, including to Israel whose home front will undoubtedly be a main frontline” in a Hezbollah showdown.

Visit the National Interest to read the article in full.

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