From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Report: Iran’s IRGC is currently running Hezbollah, preparing it for war with Israel, US
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Sources close to Hezbollah are cited by Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya as saying that the Iran-backed Lebanese group has been effectively taken over by officers from Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as Iran prepares for a war with the US and Israel.
The IRGC officers, some of whom recently arrived in Lebanon from Iran, are tasked with rebuilding Hezbollah’s military capabilities and have been personally briefing Hezbollah fighters across Lebanon, according to the sources.
They add that IRGC officers were meeting with members of Hezbollah’s missile unit at a site in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley that was bombed by Israel last night, amid a wave of airstrikes that wounded at least 50 people and killed 12, including a senior Hezbollah officer, targeting what the IDF said were Hamas and Hezbollah command centers in Lebanon.
A wider Israeli military offensive against Hezbollah is only a matter of time, say the Hezbollah-aligned sources.
Meanwhile, anti-Hezbollah Lebanese outlet Nidaa al-Watan cites “prominent political sources” in the country as saying Beirut must declare its neutrality in case of a US-Iran war, and refuse to let Hezbollah drag Lebanon into war with Israel.
The Ynet news site reported this week that Iran was pressuring Hezbollah to fight alongside it in the event of a war with Israel.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem last month said the group would not be neutral in the event of a war, but stopped short of explicitly threatening Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.