The Scud missiles transferred from Syria to Hizbullah recently are “just the tip of the iceberg,” a top IDF intelligence officer told the Knesset Tuesday. Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, Head of Research Division in Military Intelligence, gave a situation assessment Tuesday to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Syria has a very prominent role in enlarging the arsenal of rockets in Hizbullah's hands,” he said. “Weapons transfers to Hizbullah from Syria are carried out in a regular manner and are arranged by the Syrian and Iranian regimes. Therefore this should not be termed 'weapons smuggling to Lebanon' – it is an organized, officially sanctioned process.” Even without the recent Scud transfers, Baidatz said, “Hizbullah possesses an arsenal of thousands of rockets of all types and ranges including solid-fuel missiles with a longer range and more accuracy [than the Scuds].” "The long range of Syria's Scuds makes it possible for them to position their missiles deep inside Lebanon, and they cover much longer ranges than what we were familiar with in the past. Hizbullah Model 2010 is different from Hizbullah Model 2006 as far as military capability, which has greatly developed.” “Syria continues to march down two paths without being made to choose between them by the international community,” he said. “On the one hand, it is improving its relations with the West, with Arab states and with Turkey, and is going back to wielding influence in Lebanon; and at the same time it is deepening its strategic and operative cooperation with Iran. Hizbullah and Palestinian terror.”.
