Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned the United States that his group had something in store for US Navy ships stationed in the region following the outbreak of war last month between the Palestinian party Hamas and Israel, which shook the wider Middle East.
According to individuals acquainted with Hezbollah’s arsenal, powerful Russian anti-ship missiles purchased by the group provide it with the means to carry out its leader’s veiled threat against US warships and highlight the dire hazards of any regional war.
According to two individuals in Lebanon acquainted with Hezbollah’s arsenal, he was alluding to the group’s considerably upgraded anti-ship missile capabilities, which include the Russian-made Yakhont missile with a range of 300 km (186 miles).
According to media and analysts, Hezbollah obtained Yakhont missiles in Syria after deploying there more than a decade ago to assist President Bashar al-Assad in fighting a civil war.
Hezbollah has never admitted to having the weapon.
When contacted for comment on this article, the Shi’ite group’s media office did not react promptly.
Washington claims that the Mediterranean naval deployment, which includes two aircraft carriers and supporting ships, aims to prevent the crisis from spreading by discouraging Iran, which supports groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Because of their ability to strike the group and its allies, Hezbollah sees the US warships as a direct danger.
In a speech on Friday, Nasrallah stated that US warships in the Mediterranean “do not scare us, and will not scare us.”
“We have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us,” he went on to say.
Following Nasrallah’s Friday statement, the White House stated that Hezbollah must not exploit the Hamas-Israel confrontation, and that the US does not want the conflict to spill over into Lebanon.
According to one of the sources, Hezbollah’s anti-ship capabilities have grown dramatically since 2006, when the group displayed its ability to strike a vessel at sea by hitting an Israeli destroyer in the Mediterranean during a fight with Israel.
“There’s the Yakhont, and of course there are other things besides it,” the insider stated, without going into further detail. The use of this weapon by Hezbollah against US Navy warships would signify that the situation has evolved into a major regional war.
Hezbollah’s capabilities
According to three current and one former US officials, Hezbollah has developed an outstanding arsenal of weaponry, including anti-ship missiles.
“We’re obviously paying a lot of attention to that… and we’re taking whatever capabilities they have seriously,” one official added, without specifically addressing whether the organisation has the Yakhont rocket.
The officials talked anonymously in order to speak openly about Hezbollah’s capabilities.
According to US sources, the recently deployed US naval strength in the region includes defences against incoming missiles. They didn’t go into detail.
The Pentagon has sent warships to the eastern Mediterranean since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists assaulted Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,400 people, according to Israel.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed over 10,000 Palestinians since then.
Nasrallah cautioned Washington on Friday that stopping the Israeli onslaught was critical to avoiding a regional war. Since October 8, Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanese border.
However, Hezbollah has only deployed a portion of its weaponry thus far, and the fighting has primarily been limited to the border area.
Iran backed militants
Other Iran-aligned groups, such as Yemen’s Houthis, have also shot drones at Israel, while Shi’ite Muslim militias backed by Iran have fired on US forces in Iraq and Syria.
According to Reuters the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the ground-launched Yakhont approaches its target at low altitude – 10 to 15 metres (yards) off the ground – to escape detection.
According to CSIS, the Yakhont missile, a version of the P-800 Oniks missile first created in 1993, was developed in 1999 for export by a Russian defence contractor and may be launched from the air, land, or submarines.
When asked about the sources’ claims that Hezbollah had obtained Yakhont missiles, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, “First and foremost, this is news with no confirmation.” We don’t know if it’s true or not.”
“Secondly, we do not have such information.”
The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a written request for comment. The Syrian information ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ emailed inquiry.
Nasrallah’s Friday speech was one of his strongest warnings to the US, which holds his group responsible for a suicide attack that destroyed the US Marines headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 servicemen, as well as a suicide attack on the US embassy that same year, killing 63 people.
While Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the assaults, Nasrallah alluded to them implicitly in his speech, saying people who beat the US in Lebanon in the early 1980s were “still alive.”
In remarks aired last month on his private YouTube channel, Nasser Qandil, a Lebanese political analyst close to Hezbollah, outlined how the group’s Yakhont missiles could be used against US vessels.
He called the rocket “the most important prize” of Hezbollah’s role in Syria’s civil war, where the group helped turn the tide in Assad’s favour.
“Yes, Hezbollah is prepared and ready,” stated Qandil.
According to two people who spoke to Reuters, Hezbollah got the weapon while fighting in Syria in support of Assad, whose force has long been supported by Russia.
Hezbollah maintains its stockpile and the sources of its weapons under wraps. Nasrallah detailed how the group received Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles through Syria in rare statements on the subject in 2021.
