(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira - In November 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appointed Brig.-Gen. Hossein Dehghan as Minister of Defense. Dehghan had been the commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon in 1983 and was responsible, on Iran's behalf, for carrying out the bombing attack on the U.S. Marine barracks and on the French paratrooper base in Beirut. The Hizbullah commander who directly oversaw this mission was Imad Mughniyeh, who, according to one eyewitness account, watched the attack from the roof of a building. This week Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif paid his respects at Mughniyeh's grave. In January 2014, Minister of Defense Dehghan eulogized Hassan Laqis, who established Hizbullah's missile unit. As Dehghan's own bureau chief in Lebanon, it is reasonable to surmise that Laqis, like Dehghan, played an active role in the planning and execution of the fatal blast at the Marine barracks in Beirut, activity that is now winning praise in Rouhani's Iran. The writer is a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Center.
2014-01-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive