Hezbollah Buying Up Land in Southern Lebanon

Hezbollah is buying large amounts of land in southern Lebanon as part of a huge reconstruction program it calls the “Building Jihad,” according to the Sunday Telegraph. The initiative is thought to be backed by Iran.

The area, just north of the Litani River and the UN-enforced buffer zone, is full of wooded valleys and strategic gorges, which Hezbollah fighters are fortifying in preparation for another war with Israel, the Telegraph said.

Ali Tajeddine, a Shiite construction tycoon and former Sierra Leone diamond trader, has purchased an arc of tracts surrounding Hezbollah’s stronghold in Chbail. The village, once inhabited by Christians, is now owned by Tajeddine and populated by Shiites. Outsiders are banned from entering the area, not by the Lebanese Army, but by Hezbollah.

Tajeddine is also thought to be behind the Shiite land-grab affecting half a dozen more Druze Muslim and Christian villages in the area. The former Sierra Leone diamond trader is suspected of having strong ties to Hezbollah and of financing a large portion of the “Building Jihad.”

The Hezbollah land-grab is also securing the village of Ahmediyya, which will create a region of Shiite-controlled territory stretching from Hezbollah’s south Lebanon stronghold to the Bekaa Valley. “It is part of Hezbollah’s plan to create a state within a state.”

The Trumpet