Hizbullah Simulation Aims to Hold Grip on Lebanon, Besiege Hariri in Less than 2 Hours

Hizbullah has reportedly unleashed a simulation of the zero hour aimed at holding both a security and military grip on Lebanon and corner Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

A report published Monday by al-Akhbar newspaper said that prior to Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's Oct. 28 speech a "main Opposition group was carrying out an electronic, field simulation for the assumed zero hour."

This was an indirect reference to Hizbullah.

The simulation, according to the daily, preceded an electronic Israeli simulation for a future war with Hizbullah that could reach Tel Aviv.

It said the Hizbullah mockup was based on a scenario of the issuance of the International Tribunal indictment accusing Hizbullah of ex-PM Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Just a few hours before issuance of the indictment, Hizbullah plans to deploy security and political forces en masse, without bloodshed and without targeting citizens or residential areas, the report said.

The quick implementation on the ground, which was carried out in less than two hours, was "designed to hold a security and military grip on large areas of Lebanon," Al-Akhbar wrote.

It said among the targets, were also centers and sites as well as political, military and security figures. The plan also aims at looking for (simultaneously and during a two-hour period) the officials Syria had issued arrest warrants against or those who tried to stir sectarian strife.

The report said Hizbullah's plan includes pinning down those officials' whereabouts and arresting them "in order to curtail their movement and get hold of major cities in Lebanon."

The report said Hizbullah's plan includes pinning down those officials' whereabouts and arresting them "in order to curtail their movement and hold a grip on major cities in Lebanon from the capital and the suburbs to the Kesrouan highlands and north Lebanon and well as holding a grip on seaports and border crossings to prevent the escape of personalities."

Al-Akhbar said news may not have reached Prime Minister Saad Hariri that his mansion in downtown Beirut, better known as Center House, and the Grand Serail have been toppled and that they are in the hands of Hizbullah security forces and that Hariri had been isolated.