Iran 'offers missiles to Lebanon'

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Amid speculation that Hezbollah has acquired chemical weapons from Iran, the Lebanese media reports that Tehran has offered to provide the Lebanese military with a range of weapons, including anti-aircraft missile systems.

Hezbollah getting its hands on such weapons is a "red line" for the Israelis, whose jets and surveillance drones violate Lebanese air space just about every day despite international protests.

While there has been no independent confirmation that Hezbollah has received chemical arms or that the Lebanese army is about to receive Iranians missiles, the reports have heightened tension in a region where both sides are braced for conflict.

Hezbollah has maintained an ambiguous silence about the report it has had chemical weapons since December 2008, which have been reportedly stored in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon, Hezbollah's heartland, and in the south, the main zone of conflict with Israel.

That report was published Thursday by Kuwait's al-Seyasseh newspaper, which opposes the Shiite organization and its mentors, Iran and Syria.

The daily quoted unnamed Western intelligence sources as saying that a suspected Hezbollah arms dump in the southern village of Khirbet Selim that blew up under mysterious circumstances July 14 contained chemical arms.

At least three Hezbollah members died from chemical contamination caused by the explosion, the sources were quoted as saying.

Al-Seyasseh reported that U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon found traces of chemical residue in soil samples taken from the site.

The U.N. force has made no comment. But the Israelis have long suspected that Hezbollah, heavily outnumbered and outgunned by Israel's military, was seeking to acquire chemical weapons, as well as air-defense missiles to challenge Israel's long-held aerial dominance.

Despite the alarming reports, Israeli analysts were skeptical that Hezbollah would actually use chemical weapons against the Jewish state.

"Chemical weapons are a doomsday weapon and I don't think Hezbollah will go there," Mordechai Kedar of Tel Aviv's Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies told Israel's Media Line agency.

"I can't see them using chemical weapons against Israel because that would be the end of them. Their objective is to create a state, not eradicate Israel. So the war against Israel is merely a means, not an aim in itself."

It should be noted, however, that Hezbollah calls for the destruction of Israel and the "liberation" of Jerusalem.

Its fighters have conducted suicide attacks in the past and are prepared to do so again. But if Hezbollah used chemical weapons against Israel or its military, that would provoke massive retaliation that could devastate tiny Lebanon.

Meantime, Beirut newspapers reported that the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital had consulted the Lebanese military about its arms requirements.

The army command reportedly responded that it needed effective air-defense systems. At present it only has obsolete Soviet-era anti-aircraft guns, 23mm and 50mm, that have no radar or fire-control and are totally ineffective against the marauding Israeli jets.

Up to now, the United States -- and France to a lesser extent -- has provided Lebanon's military with equipment worth some $400 million. But this has been largely non-lethal and has not bolstered the army's capabilities to the point it could take on Israel's military with an expectation of success.

The Israelis believe that if Iran supplied Lebanon's military with surface-to-air missiles, these would inevitably end up in Hezbollah's hands. The vast majority of the 53,000-strong army is Shiite.

The timing of the reported Iranian offer may be linked to a recent statement by Lebanon's prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, that he would include Hezbollah in his new government he is seeking to form following June 7 elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that if Hezbollah joins Lebanon's government, Hariri's Cabinet would be held responsible for any future attack on Israel and the entire country would suffer the consequences.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in July and August 2006 that ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. During the conflict, in which Hezbollah fired some 4,000 rockets into the Jewish state, Israeli warplanes blasted Hezbollah strongholds and Shiite centers daily.

They destroyed some bridges and roads, but generally did not attack non-Shiite targets.