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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.
A fighter from the Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra is seen through a smashed bus window during a fight with forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad at the front line in Aleppo December 24, 2012. Syria special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi discussed solving the country's conflict with President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, but the opposition expressed deepening frustration with the mission following what it called the latest massacre of civilians. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITI
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“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.

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