There's a lot going on already with the current conflict erupting like Mt. Vesuvius over in the Middle East and speculation is ranging abut whether or not Iran will somehow get pulled into this.
Now Israel is reporting that they have solid evidence Hezbollah will moved the Israeli prisoners to Iran.
Israel has concrete evidence that Hezbollah plans to transfer the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted Wednesday to Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday.
"We have concrete evidence that Hezbollah plans to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran. As a result, Israel views Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran as the main players in the axis of terror and hate that endangers not only Israel, but the entire world," AFP quoted Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry Gideon Meir as saying.
An Al-Jazeera correspondent said Thursday that he had evidence that the two soldiers - identified Thursday as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin - were alive during the abduction. He said they were transferred to a Shi'ite mosque in a nearby town, where the abductors changed clothes. According to the report, one of the soldiers was transferred in a cab, to make it difficult for Israeli intelligence to locate him. The Al-Jazeera correspondent stressed that he had received the information from a source close to Hezbollah, and that members of the organization refuse to disclose more information with nothing in return.
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Given this map, I'm not sure how they plan on transporting the troops to Iran, but surely they're going to have to pass through some territory that is going to make it difficult for the US not to have security concerns.
The way I see it, there two easiest routes are either going to be through Turkey or through Iraq.
Will the US let Lebanon transport the prisoners through Iraq? I doubt it. And I don't think the US will be ok with Turkey letting them pass through. And forget a Saudi Arabia-Kuwait-Persian Gulf type transport.
I'm by no stretch of the imagination an expert on Middle East foreign policy, am unaware of possible particular friendship between specific countries, etc, that could facilitate the transport of these prisoners. But I see it as a concern for the US considering our presence in the Middle East, as well as our location - right in the middle of it.
Thoughts?