Special Dispatch - Iran/Syria/Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project
August 19, 2004
No. 765

Kuwaiti Daily: Iran Delivered Missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa recently reported that Iran has delivered
missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria, and that Iran and Syria are
cooperating closely in missile development and deployment. The following are
excerpts of the article:(1)

"Two cargo aircraft landed on the morning of Wednesday, August 4, 2004, at
one of the Syrian military airfields in north Damascus. There to greet the
planes were Iranian Ambassador to Syria Riza Baqiri and Iranian Ambassador
to Lebanon Mas'ud Idris."

Al-Siyassa also reported that "several Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers
had arrived the previous day from their headquarters at a Hizbullah military
camp near the town of Qasrbana in al-Buqa' in order to unload a significant
number of surface-to-surface missiles."

According to information received from the Syrian opposition in London on
Saturday, August 14, the missiles "are of the most recent and improved
Iranian model, with a 250- to 350-kilometer range, with which it is possible
to hit any target in Israel." The sources also reported to Al-Siyassa that
the two deliveries comprised 220 missiles "that Iran had not so far supplied
to any foreign entity...

"Over Thursday and Friday [August 12-13], the missiles were transported in
civilian Syrian and Lebanese trucks to three Hizbullah military bases" in
the regions of Jenta and Yahfufa near the Syrian border, as well as to
southern Ba'albek.

The Syrian opposition said that according to information they claim to have
received from a senior source in the Syrian military in Damascus, "the alert
level of the Syrian missile corps, deployed mostly in the North and East of
the country [i.e., Syria], has been raised to high after commanders in
military intelligence and in the Ba'th party in Damascus received
information about the possibility that the Israeli Air Force would attack
the nuclear reactors in Iran via Jordanian, Iraqi, and Turkish skies."

It was also stated that in the event of such an Israeli attack, "Hizbullah
and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon overseeing the deployment
and maintenance of thousands of missiles of various ranges would fire these
missiles at cities in the Hebrew state, which could expand the aerial
attacks on the nuclear, chemical, and biological installations and
uranium-enrichment plants in Iran, such that the attack would also include
Syria and Lebanon." In the same article, Al-Siyassa reported that a "Syrian
military source told the Syrian opposition in London that an Iranian
military delegation specializing in missiles had accompanied the two
deliveries to Syria, in order to oversee the deployment of the missiles in
the various regions in Lebanon."

The newspaper also quoted the source as saying that Iranian-Syrian missile
cooperation is "the closest cooperation in the history of the two countries'
strategic relations, since Iranian scientists working on developing the
Shihab missiles in Tehran had gone to Syria at the beginning of the year
[2004] to participate in the development of missile artillery based on the
same source on which Iran relies - that is, North Korea."

Endnote:
(1) Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), August 17, 2004.

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