In a flurry of activity, Iranian state media websites have sought to highlight Hezbollah’s increasing capabilities. This comes in the context of the escalating tensions with Israel.
The message is clear. Iran wants Israel and the region to believe Hezbollah is strong and ready for a possible future war.
How does Hezbollah communicate this?
Hezbollah often makes broad claims about its abilities or relies on foreign media reports to boost its claims.
This often takes the form of relying on Israeli media reports. For instance, on June 30, the Iranian state media website IRNA reported that “a former Zionist official says Hezbollah in Lebanon is one of the five superpowers in terms of the number of rockets it possesses, media outlets have reported.”
This is a way for Hezbollah to boast, via Iranian media, about its capabilities. It uses the foil of Israel and Israeli quotes to boost its own claims. This form of laundering information is familiar in the region, especially with Iranian media. However, the Hezbollah context of tensions with Israel is important to watch here.
“The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah enjoys very dangerous military equipment and technologies, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonot said in a report,” IRNA re-reported this week. “According to the report, the Israeli regime is facing an enemy that has a high military capability and possesses dangerous equipment and technologies such as pinpoint missiles and advanced drones,” the report said. This was part of a series of reports with headlines such as “Hezbollah’s military technologies very dangerous: Israeli paper [says].”
As tensions grow with Israel, Hezbollah will increasingly try to showcase its abilities. It claimed to launch a heavy Burkan rocket yesterday toward northern Israel. It also used drones to attack Israel on June 30.
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