Putin reopens the case of Iran’s presence in Lebanon

Source: Nida Al Watan - Ziad Bitar

A statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin has reopened wide-ranging questions and analyses regarding the scale of the Iranian presence that moved to Lebanon following the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and its direct connection to the reorganization of Hezbollah’s military and security capabilities.

Putin stated that “when certain armed groups attacked the Syrian city of Aleppo, there were around 30,000 Iranian personnel there, and when the attack began, the Iranian forces withdrew without confrontation and handed over their positions,” adding that Moscow helped evacuate Iranian forces from Syria, where “around 4,000 Iranian soldiers were transferred, some of them to Iraq and others to Lebanon.”

Although Iran’s role in supporting Hezbollah is not new, the significance of Putin’s remarks lies in their public confirmation that Iranian personnel were transferred from the Syrian arena to Lebanon at a time when the group is undergoing an internal restructuring of its capabilities following the latest war.

It is noted that advisers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrived in Lebanon during the early months of the war between Hezbollah and Israel, and are working directly with its cadres as part of a plan to rebuild the military force and the civil and organizational structure. The existing coordination is not limited to political support, but also includes planning, training, and technical and operational assistance, benefiting from the experience accumulated by Iranian forces during years of war in Syria.

Despite Tehran’s attempts to place some of these individuals within diplomatic or political frameworks, while denying any direct military role for them inside Lebanon, this narrative raises many questions, particularly after previous incidents that revealed a clear overlap between Iranian diplomatic and security activities.

One such example was the injury of former Iranian ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amani during the “pager operation,” when he was wounded alongside members of Hezbollah who were using communication devices linked to the group’s security infrastructure. The incident at the time raised many questions regarding the nature of the role played by certain Iranian officials in Lebanon.

In this context, previous incidents also reinforce this issue, most notably the 2018 case in which it was established that the third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Austria, Assadollah Assadi, was in fact serving as Iran’s top intelligence official across the entire European continent. In Turkey, Iran’s ambassador Manouchehr Mottaki was implicated in an attempted kidnapping of an Iranian opposition figure, a plot that was foiled before it could be carried out.

Despite the departure of more than 150 Iranian nationals, including diplomats and members of their families, from Lebanon aboard a Russian aircraft, in addition to the transfer of the remains of an Iranian diplomat, his wife, and their 3 children following Israeli airstrikes that targeted apartments and homes in Beirut, these developments have once again drawn attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements regarding the transfer of Iranian personnel from Syria to Lebanon. According to observers, these developments raise questions about the actual number of Iranians still present inside Lebanon, and whether some of them are linked to the IRGC, particularly after the Lebanese government’s decision to arrest and deport any member of the “Guard” involved in military activities on Lebanese territory.