Iran’s al Qods, Hizballah secretly integrate rocket and commando units

debkafile‘s military and intelligence sources disclose that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards delegation last week signed a secret accord with Hizballah leaders for the integration and operational merger of their missile-rocket and commando units.
This may not have been news to US vice president Dick Cheney, when he “revealed” Saturday, Sept. 6, that Russia had sold advanced weapons to Syria and Iran, some of which had been channeled to Lebanon and Iraq.
However, Israeli president Shimon Peres, who responded by waving aside the need for an Israeli attack on Iran, was clearly out of the picture evolving ominously across the border in Lebanon.
There, Iran and Syria are deepening their stranglehold on Lebanon and preparing to attack Israel by using al-Qods’ resources to further fortify Hizballah.
The new accord enables the two terrorist machines to fight under a unified command controlled from Tehran.
Like President Peres, the rest of Israel’s policy-making levels appears oblivious to the fact that key elements of Hizballah’s fighting machine against Israel have been taken over by the al Qods commander, Ghasem Suleimani, whom debkafile identifies as the senior commander of Iran’s terrorist and intelligence networks in the Palestinian territories and the Persian Gulf.
Western military experts point to the contiguous operational control Iran has acquired for al Qods – from Iraq, via Syria, Lebanon and up to the Mediterranean coast of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Last week, defense minister Ehud Barak warned that Israel is closely and cautiously following developments to the north. “Our enemies” had better not put IDF to the test, he said.
Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah, already inured to such statements from Barak which rarely lead to action, simply ignored this one too.
Iran timed its move to coincide with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Damascus last week, hoping all eyes would be fixed on the visit and no one would notice the al Qods team slipping quietly into Beirut for another step to plunge Lebanon further into Iran-backed Hizballah war preparations against Israel.