Hezbollah's Growing Threat Against U.S. National Security Interests in the Middle East

Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, along with the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and the Arab states and Iran, represent some of the top priorities for U. S. national security interests in the Middle East. And one of the common denominators here, one thing at the center of all of this, is the U. S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Hezbollah. This Shi'ite Islamist group is an Iran proxy group that is known to be one of the world's most dangerous and capable terror organizations, trained, equipped and funded by Iran's Quds Force. Hezbollah has been responsible for some of the world's most infamous terror attacks including the 1983 U. S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and the bombing of a bus in Bulgaria which targeted Israeli citizens. But this is just a small fraction of its terror activities, as Hezbollah is present around the world, including an alarming presence in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is involved in drug trafficking, smuggling networks and terror operations.