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Calling Trump ‘crazy,’ Hezbollah fears president will move to assassinate its leadership

Report quotes Hezbollah officials saying Trump is “crazy,” but have no proof an attack is pending, just “something in the atmosphere.”

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Officials of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon say they are afraid that President Donald Trump may take military action to eliminate its leadership before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday.

A senior Hezbollah official told the paper that the coming weeks are “the most dangerous period for the last 30 years. Everyone is worried, and with good reason,” referring to the month left for the Trump administration in the White House before Biden is sworn in on January 20.

“Will they try something big in Beirut in the coming weeks? It’s possible and it’s true there are security alerts in Dahiyeh and in the south,” the official said, referring to the Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital and the southern part of the country bordering Israel where Hezbollah forces control the territory.

“This is all about protecting our leaders. We don’t have anything specific. But there is something in the atmosphere,” the official said, with a second Hezbollah member adding “we don’t fear death, as you know, but we must protect our leaders and we know that we would be damaged politically if anything happened to them.”

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“These are dangerous times. Trump is crazy, but he won’t get what he wants. He doesn’t have patience and he doesn’t have time. The Israelis think they’re coming for us. We’re the ones coming for them.” the second Hezbollah official said.

The Guardian calls Hezbollah, which continues to be designated by Western countries as a terror group, “the region’s most powerful militant group.”

Armed, funded and trained by Iran, Hezbollah is blamed for the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this year that killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians and destroyed or damaged the homes of a quarter million residents of the city.

Last week, former Lebanese Justice Minister Maj.-Gen. Ashraf Rifi accused Iran of sending Hezbollah the thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that detonated, calling it Lebanon’s “crime of the century.”

The U.S. has imposed a series of harsh economic sanctions on Hezbollah in order to choke its military activities. The terror group was  behind the 1983 terrorist bombing in Beirut that killed 307 people, including 241 U.S. troops and 58 French soldiers who were part of a peacekeeping mission there.

Earlier this month, Lebanese not affiliated with Hezbollah called on the incoming Biden Administration not to embolden Hezbollah by easing sanctions on either the terror organization itself or its state-sponsor, Iran.