Mediaboss Marketing

Much has been said and written about Irans intended entrenchment in Syria and the way Tehran is investing extraordinary human and financial resources to help President Bashar Assad survive. Still, the story of the assassination of Mustafa Badreddine, the head of Hezbollahs military wing, illustrates with rare clarity the determination on the part of Iran and Hezbollah not to let anyone interfere with Irans plans in Syria.

Badreddine, the successor and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh (who was married to Badreddines sister, Saada), was killed last May, in a mysterious explosion near Damascus International Airport. Surprisingly, Hezbollah and its allies cleared Israel of any blame. Hezbollah officials said at the time that the circumstances of the assassination were being investigated.

This assassination could have caused an enormous commotion throughout the Middle East. Badreddine, after all, was second only to Hassan Nasrallah in the Hezbollah hierarchy, and was the successor of Mughniyeh, who had been wanted all over the world for the murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Yet the entire topic disappeared from the Syrian and Lebanese agenda within days. The assassination remained a mystery.

Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, General Qassem Suleimani, looking on as people pay their condolences following the death of his mother in Tehran, September 14, 2013. (AFP/ISNA/Mehdi Ghasemi)

Then, last month, came an expos by Al Arabiya, the Saudi Arabian news channel, claiming that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, were behind the assassination. Several days later, Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot confirmed the information that had been reported on Al Arabiya. The main reason for Badreddines assassination, according to Al Arabiya, was his differences of opinion with Soleimani over Hezbollahs involvement in the battles in Syria.

A check with Arab and Western intelligence sources confirms this. Badreddine was known to have strongly opposed the fact that Hezbollah had become Irans cannon fodder in Syria. He would not allow his men to fight on the battlefield without Irans active cooperation in the battles. Badreddine demanded that the Iranians be full partners in the fighting in Syria and not sacrifice the Arab Shiites. Soleimani did not like Badreddines attitude, and neither, it seems, did Nasrallah.

According to Al Arabiyas version of Badreddines death, four men met in a building near Damascus International Airport hours before he died. The first was Badreddine. Eyewitnesses say that the second was Soleimani himself, who left a few minutes after the meeting. The third was Badreddines personal escort, who also left the building, leaving only the fourth man the killer, a member of Hezbollah and a former bodyguard of Nasrallah: Ibrahim Hussein Jezzini, whom Badreddine had trusted completely.

Members and supporters of Lebanons Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah carry the coffin of Mustafa Badreddine, a top Hezbollah commander who was killed in an attack in Syria, during his funeral in the Ghobeiry neighborhood of southern Beirut on May 13, 2016. (AFP/Anwar Amro)

Hezbollahs conclusions from its investigation of the incident sounded unconvincing from the moment they were reported. Hezbollah officials claimed that Badreddine was killed by the explosion of a rocket or mortar shell fired by the opposition at his location near the airport. But according to investigations by Al Arabiya and Syrian human-rights groups, no rocket or mortar shell was fired from the opposition positions, which were approximately 20 kilometers away from the airport, and no incidents of artillery fire of any kind at the area were noted in the 24 hours preceding the assassination.

There would also presumably have been more fatalities if such fire had taken place. We can guess that Badreddine did not arrive at the building near the airport alone, but it was reported that he was the only one who died. Al Arabiya also published satellite images, from both before and after the supposed bombardment, of the building where Badreddine was supposedly killed. The images show that the building was undamaged.

Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah speaking to Iranian state television, in a clip broadcast on February 20, 2017. (screen capture: Twitter)

Even if we assume for a moment that the Syrian opposition was responsible, these are Sunni militias that are all too eager to talk about every Shiite whom they succeed in killing on Syrian soil, and all the more so in the case of Hezbollah members. If the Syrian opposition or someone connected with it had been behind the assassination, the victory celebrations would still be going on.

After IDF chief Eisenkot said that the reports matched the information that Israel had about the circumstances of the assassination, some tried to claim that this was utter nonsense, and said the same regarding Al Arabiyas expos. These elements may have more reliable information; if so, they might wish to share the secret evidence in their possession with the general public.

But after reviewing Al Arabiyas expos, it must be said that its conclusions sound more than logical. Any other possibility that the opposition, Israel, or others were to blame is unlikely. But a commanding officer of Hezbollah who followed a policy line that at odds with Iran, one might reasonably assume, would not find himself merely dismissed from his position. The only way to replace him, it might seem, would be to terminate him with extreme prejudice.

Adnan Badreddine, left, brother of Hezbollah terror chief Mustafa Badreddine, grieves at his brother's picture in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

More:
Fatal dissent: When a Hezbollah commander argued with Iran - The Times of Israel