MOSCOW (Portal) The United States has information that the Russian mercenary group Wagner plans to equip Hezbollah, the Iranbacked Lebanese militia, with an air defense system, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
The Journal said Wagner plans to deliver the PantsirS1 system, known to NATO as the SA22, which uses antiaircraft missiles and air defense weapons to intercept aircraft.
The Wagner Group, which was funded by the Russian state and has been firmly under Kremlin control since a failed mutiny by its former leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in June, did not respond to a Portal request for comment.
An unnamed US official said Washington had not confirmed delivery of the system, according to the Journal. But U.S. authorities are monitoring discussions between Wagner and Hezbollah, the Journal said.
The Journal said the Pantsir system would be delivered to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russia supported President Bashar alAssad when he entered the country’s civil war in 2015.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard founded Hezbollah in 1982, in the midst of Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990. It was part of Iran’s efforts to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution throughout the region and to combat Israeli forces after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon .
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been engaged in firefights with Israeli forces across the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas went to war in Gaza and Israel on October 7.