An image grab taken from Hezbollah's al-Manar TV on December 3, 2013 shows Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement (AFP Photo)
Though Adversaries On The Surface, U.S. And Hezbollah Share A Goal -- New York Times
BEIRUT, Lebanon — They are sworn enemies who insist they will never work together, but in practice, Hezbollah and the United States are already working — separately — on a common goal: to stop the extremist Islamic State from moving into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is the most powerful military and political player and currently shares with Washington an interest in stability.
Weeks after Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political party, helped repel an Islamic State attack on the town of Arsal on the Syrian border, new American weapons are flowing to help the Lebanese Army — which coordinates with Hezbollah — to secure the frontier. American intelligence shared with the army, according to Lebanese experts on Hezbollah, has helped the organization stop suicide attacks on its domain in southern Beirut.
Read more ....
Update: Hezbollah, warily, lines up with 'Great Satan' to fight against IS -- Nicholas Blanford, CSM
My Comment: News on secret talks between the U.S. and Hezbollah were first raised in April .... Are Secret US-Hezbollah Talks Being Held? .... resulting in open speculation in August that a U.S. - Hezbollah - Iran"understanding" was being pursued. Flash forward to today .... the U.S. is already assisting Hezbollah .... and now everyone is raising eyebrows that this assistance may now involve military aid .... US Reportedly Providing Indirect Military Aid to Hezbollah (Arutz Sheva).
From where I am standing ... I think I see a trend.
2 comments:
The Enemy of My Friend is my Enemy.
The Friend of my Enemy is my Enemy.
The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend.
Hezbullah is a managable threat, at least in the eyes of this administration. They are playing realpolitik like no other since the end of the Nixon administration.
Trevor
I agree to a point.
The enemy of my enemy is temporary ally until the original enemy is defeated. It remains to be seen if the joint effort results in future friendship or merely survival to that point.
I see no reason to ally with Hezbollah or Iran. While we are cooperating on one front they are still moving "chess" pieces to be in position to attack us another day.
Will cooperation with Hezbollah bear more fruit than out cooperation with NATO ally Turkey.
We have no need of Hezbollah while we have Turkey as an ally. Turkey has enough ground forces that if used in conjunction with Turkish, NATO & US air power would be enough to steam roll ISIS.
They have enough frontage along the Syrian and Iraqi borders to attack ISIS directly.
But if we can't rely on Turkey, because it is Muslim then how can we rely on Hezbollah?
We lost Turkey around 1998 or slightly before, when Erdogan was Mayor of Istanbul.
If Obama does something right it is because he has the same likelihood of being right as a stopped clock showing the correct time.
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