Has Hezbollah obtained chemical weapons?

Hezbollah's flag

Reports in the Lebanese and Kuwaiti press indicate that Hezbollah may have obtained chemical weapons from Iran.

According to a report in the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah (Arabic), a shipment of chemical weapons was recently sent to the Lebanese shiite militia, along with thousands of gas masks. The weapons were allegedly flown from Iran through Syria before being transferred, via land, to storehouses in the Bekaa Valley. From the Bekaa Valley, the weapons would then be near the Litani River and the Israeli border.

Lebanese English-language paper The Daily Star translated the Kuwaiti piece and emphasized the allegation that the explosion at a Hezbollah storehouse in July took place because of chemical weapons:

In a further allegation, the paper suggested that the explosion of a suspected Hizbullah arms cache near Khirbet Silim in July took place at a location that housed chemical weapons. “Hizbullah was storing chemical weapons in its underground arms depot,” the paper read, adding that three of the group’s members died in hospitals in Tyre and Nabatieh following chemical contamination at the blast site. [...]

Although sources for this information were not identified in the report, they were said to be “intelligence sources in Europe” who acted in conjunction with UNIFIL. UNIFIL is currently carrying out its investigation into the blast site in conjunction with the Lebanese Army and the paper reported that the peacekeeping force had found evidence of chemical residue in soil samples surrounding the depot.

Hezbollah refused to confirm or deny the reports to the Daily Star, instead asking “who reads that paper anyway?” of al-Seyassah.

Well, al-Seyassah is widely read by the Lebanese diaspora in the Persian Gulf. However, it is important to note that the paper regularly takes a relatively pro-American and anti-Iranian line.

Hezbollah missiles reached the Israeli city of Haifa in the 2006 war along with much of the densely populated north. Israeli retaliation included massive attacks on Lebanese targets. Chemical weapons were not used in the 2006 war.