Turkey to arm Hizballah?

Signs point to yes.

At the center of the plot is Hakan Fidan, the recently appointed Islamist director of Turkish intelligence.

See: La Via Turca delle Armi per Hezbollah by Guido Olimpio, writing for Corriere Della Serra. For translation use Google or see this report from the Jerusalem Post: Turkey to give Hizbullah weapons. Note that it's a much more interesting story in Italian - the JPost article only hits the high points.

Summary: The plan is to move weapons from Turkey to Syria, where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps will take possession and ensure delivery to Hizballah. The operation is to be modeled on the existing Iranian weapons distribution system running through Sudan.

Prediction: If there is anything to this, I would expect video of the arms crossing the border into Syria and the subsequent hand-off to the IRGC, followed by a dramatic Israeli raid which seizes evidence for later presentation and leaves the rest a smoldering ruin visible to the satellites of any nation interested in taking a look. Grabbing a couple of Iranian and/or Turkish agents alive would be a nice touch.

Posted on 12 August 2010 @ 13:17