Israel exposes identities of Iran officials it says are behind Hezbollah missile project

The Israeli military reveals the identities of four senior Iranian and Hezbollah officials involved in a joint project to manufacture precision-guided missiles for the Lebanese terror group, in a dramatic move apparently serving as a tacit threat to the officers.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus says this program is being led on the Iranian side by Brig. Gen. Muhammad Hussein-Zada Hejazi, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, operating under the direct command of IRGC chief Qassem Soleimani.

The army says IRGC Col. Majid Nuab is responsible for the technical aspects of this program, which dates back to 2016.

The complicated logistics of transporting the machinery necessary to create these precision-guided missiles is managed by IRGC Brig. Gen. Ali Asrar Nuruzi, according to the IDF.

This joint project is being led for Hezbollah by Fuad Shukr, a senior member of the Lebanese group, who acts as a close adviser to its leader Hassan Nasrallah and is wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, Conricus says.

The Israeli military says it is releasing this information and plans to reveal more intelligence on this Iran-led plot in order to push the Lebanese government and international community to take action to halt this project.

“Iran is endangering Lebanese by trying to produce precision guided missiles on Lebanese soil, using the Lebanese people as human shields,” Conricus says.

— Judah Ari Gross