Hezbollah Purchasing Land and Consolidating Hold Of Lebanon

The signs are ominous. Hezbollah is digging in just out of the reach of the UN and well within reach of Israeli cities. You can't help but feel that it is only a matter of time.

"Hizbollah buys frontier land to attack Israel" by Charles Levinson for the Telegraph:

Hizbollah is buying up large tracts of land owned by Christians and other non-Shias in southern Lebanon as the militant group rebuilds its defences in preparation for a new war with Israel, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

The land grab is thought to be driven by the Iranian-backed guerrillas' efforts to rearm themselves and fortify the strategically important ravines north of the Litani River, just north of the front line in last year's 34-day conflict with its Jewish neighbour.

Here, Hizbollah has been free to press forward without harassment from the 13,000 United Nations peacekeepers and 20,000 Lebanese army troops who were deployed south of the Litani as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended the conflict.

The UN troops have not served any purpose in the area other that offering their services as targets for the occasional road side bomb. They have stood by idly as the Iranians and Syrians rearm Hezbollah.

The Lebanese army, meanwhile, is about 50 per cent Shia and seems to be turning a blind eye to Hizbollah activities north of the river.

They understand where their future lies. They understand who really wields the power in the country.

"Christians and Druze are selling land and moving out, while the Shia are moving in. There is an extraordinary demo-graphic shift taking place," said Edmund Rizk, a Christian MP for the area until 1992.

"It is part of Hizbollah's plan to create a state within a state," said Walid Jumblatt, a Druze leader. He also pointed to the four-lane road being built to connect the Hizbollah stronghold of Nabatieh in the south to the western Bekaa.

Banners openly proclaim the source of the road's funding: "510km of new roads paid for by the Iranian Organization for Sharing in the Building of Lebanon".

Lebanon has always been a protectorate of Syria. Now Iran is digging in.