Experts to Asharq Al-Awsat: “Iranian resentment” raises the level of danger coming to Syria across the border

It was noteworthy in the Damascus announcement, on the night of Friday - Saturday, thwarting a large drug smuggling operation in the Sarghaya area in the Damascus countryside, coming from Lebanon, that those who confronted the operation were the forces of the Ministry of Defense, not the Internal Security Forces, according to what a security expert told Asharq Al-Awsat, while another military expert linked what is happening on the Syrian borders with Lebanon and Iraq to Iranian “resentment” towards Syria.

The Department of Media and Communication in the Ministry of Defense had reported that the Border Guard forces had thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs from Lebanon in the Sarghaya area in the Damascus countryside, on the border with Lebanon.

She said, “During the operation, the smugglers initiated shooting toward the force that responded to the source of the fire, which prompted the shooters to flee toward Lebanese territory.” According to a statement by the Internal Security Forces, 280 kilograms of hashish and 28,000 Captagon pills were confiscated.

On November 4, the Lebanese army carried out extensive raids in the barren lands of the town of Arsal, which resulted in the arrest of smugglers and thwarting the infiltration of illegal vehicles.

This came days after the arrest of a cell that was planning to target the Homs oil refinery. The Syrian authorities said that the cell was linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah, while the latter denied its relationship with it.

Security expert Diaa Qaddour noted in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah is expanding its terrorist interventions in Syria by raising the level of terrorist bombings in sensitive sites, “warning that the border region is very dangerous, and we are likely to witness at any moment an escalation in tensions, which requires permanent Syrian security vigilance.”[... The full text of the article continues...]