Missiles, fighters, budget... What do we know about Hezbollah’s firepower?

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00:00Phillip, we've heard a lot, haven't we, about a lot of speculation about Hezbollah's firepower,

00:04people saying that it's much, much larger than that of Hamas.

00:08What do we actually know? What are the facts?

00:10Well, it's very difficult to actually put a figure on that firepower

00:15and the number of fighters that are under the control of Hezbollah,

00:19but if you go on the internet and you look around on different websites,

00:22either in Israel or Wikipedia or from the United States, you can get some kind of an idea.

00:27$700 million annually is the figure which has been put forward by the US.

00:30That's basically Iranian monetary support, the main backers of Hezbollah.

00:35Between 20,000 and 65,000 fighters, about 20,000 full-time fighters plus reservists,

00:42between 40,000 and 120,000 missiles, plus also limited numbers of anti-aircraft,

00:48anti-ship missiles and thousands of anti-tank missiles,

00:52which in general terms means that Hezbollah is much better equipped militarily

00:59than most normal countries in the world.

01:01So that's why it's not really interesting for Israel to launch a full-scale ground invasion

01:06or a full-scale conflict. And as I was just saying, it's supported Hezbollah by Iran.

01:11Iran has been pretty quiet all the way through this conflict because it doesn't want to get involved.

01:15It doesn't want to get ruffled by the United States,

01:18which could threaten to cause trouble in Iran.

01:22Iran wants to keep hold of its nuclear program.

01:25So it's not being particularly vociferous as far as supporting Hezbollah

01:30or being outright in its support of Hezbollah is concerned during this conflict.

01:34But that, of course, all could change very quickly.

01:36The big question, I think, Stuart, right now is where does this leave the United States?

01:41What role is the United States playing in trying to bring all this to an end?

01:44I think that there's a feeling in Israel that Joe Biden's time at the White House

01:47is pretty much over, that they've got a green card because the U.S. will always support Israel.

01:53As we've heard dozens of times, Israel has the right to defend itself.

01:56Those weapons are still coming in to protect Israel.

01:58They can be used in this conflict.

02:00And I think Benjamin Netanyahu is biding his time

02:03because if Donald Trump wins the election and gets to the White House,

02:06that will be a much more positive development for the Israeli prime minister.

02:11So we're in a wait-and-see situation in Israel over what is happening in the United States.

02:16I think the U.S. is far too focused on the upcoming election campaign,

02:21putting the pressure on Israel really onto a back burner.

02:25And that's sort of giving the Israeli authorities the green card they need

02:28to go ahead and push forward with this offensive against Hezbollah.

02:31Philip, thanks so much. Philip Taylor, International Affairs Editor there in Forens24.

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