Is Hezbollah ExaggeratingJabhat al-Nusra’s Strength?
According to a Lebanese politician once close to Hezbollah, the organization is exaggerating Jabhat al-Nusra’s size to scare Lebanese Shiites into continuing to support the party, writes Elie Hajj.
“There is no Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon. It is a fabrication by Hezbollah and by certain government security agencies that are close to or coordinate with the party. The purpose of this fabrication, which is accompanied by a Hezbollah media campaign, is to keep the party’s popular base in a state of alert after it received two shocks: first, the fall of former prime minister Najib Mikati’s government. Hezbollah controlled that government and its fall gave Hezbollah’s opponents, especially the Sunnis, a sense of relief. Second, the revelation of how much Hezbollah is involved in the Syrian war.”
This assessment was told to Al-Monitor by a politician who was once close to Hezbollah and who closely follows developments in Syria and the Lebanese Shiite community. He dismisses Jabhat al-Nusra’s size and its significance, even in Syria, considering this radical Islamist group “practically nonexistent,” with some 3,000 members at most. They are of various nationalities and traveled to Syria to perform what they call a “religious jihad,” which is similar to the “jihadist duty” that Hezbollah has adopted, allowing it to mourn its own “martyrs” killed in Syria.
The Sunni militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, who the politician said are crossing the Syrian border at several points, wear new and expensive military attire and shoes and carry large sums of money. On the other hand, Free Syrian Army (FSA) elements wear an assortment of clothes, and some do not even have shoes. He asserted, “Some are fighting almost barefoot and are hardly able to get food. In such a circumstance, it is natural for a hard-line group to attract fighters from here and there. My information is that Jabhat al-Nusra now has 1,000 or 2,000 members. But let us say that President Bashar al-Assad is right and that they number about 5,000. Compared to the FSA, which is between 125,000 and 150,000, that is nothing.”
The politician, who occupies a high-level post in the Lebanese government, said that Jabhat al-Nusra will eventually end up as a scapegoat. In his view, the US and other Western media are deliberately exaggerating the group's size and role to justify holding off on an international military intervention in Syria. That intersects with Hezbollah’s interests, although their aims are different.
