Report: Iran sent dozens of officers to Lebanon to rehabilitate Hezbollah

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have taken on an ambitious project: to rebuild Hezbollah’s military chain of command, after it suffered mortal blows from Israel in the 2024 war. A comprehensive investigation by the Reuters news agency, based on the testimony of six sources familiar with Iranian activity in Lebanon and security experts, reveals how Iranian officers filled the ranks and reorganized the Lebanese terrorist organization in preparation for the campaign The regional is now defunct.

The main change led by the Iranian officers was the neglect of the hierarchical structure that characterized the Nasrallah era, in favor of a much more decentralized model. Instead of a cumbersome chain of command that suffered from deep Israeli intelligence infiltration, Hezbollah moved to operate in a model of small, independent units that are unaware of each other’s activities. Experts define this as a “mosaic defense”, a model similar to Hezbollah’s modus operandi in the 1980s and the methods of operation of the Revolutionary Guards inside Iran, with the aim of ensuring strict compartmentalization.

The reconstruction efforts clashed with attempts by the Lebanese government, with American backing, to disarm the organization. At the beginning of March, the Lebanese government demanded about 150 Iranian citizens with ties to the Revolutionary Guards to leave the country, and some escaped on a flight to Russia on March 7. Despite the attempts to restrain Tehran, its investment paid off: Hezbollah managed to recover enough to join the war on March 2, while launching hundreds of missiles at Israel. However, in view of the fact that its military power is still far from its peak, it remains to be seen how the organization will cope in the event of an extensive Israeli ground invasion.