On December 25, 2014, a Twitter account affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) (@IRGCnetwork) tweeted that IRGC soldiers are at the Lebanon-Israel border: "IRGC soldiers of the Islamic Republic are at the border of occupied Palestine." The tweet included photos of soldiers, with their faces obscured.
Previously, on December 17, 2014, a blog affiliated with the Iranian Army (newss.blog.ir) published the same photos with the soldiers' faces unobscured, and several other photos, noting that they were taken in southern Lebanon in the Beqaa and Baalbeq region. The blog post was titled: "We are arriving... near the Mother of Corruption, the accursed Israel; soon we will pass over their bodies, Allah willing." The photos' date imprint, October 24, 2014, can be seen in these photos, and the original captions state "Uploaded @ Military.ir."
It should be noted that Iranian officials have been implying for some time that Iran is extending assistance and has a presence in South Lebanon. On May 2, 2014, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a security advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a former commander of the IRGC, said that "Iran's line of defense against Israel extends to South Lebanon, and our strategic defense depth extends to the Mediterranean and above Israel's head [i.e., to the region north of Israel]."[1] On September 16, 2014, IRGC commander Ali Jafari said that "the missions of the Qods Force [an IRGC elite unit] are [carried out] outside Iran's borders. Assistance to revolutionary and resistance movements, and to the oppressed, takes place worldwide. If there will be need for assistance in Syria, Iraq or Lebanon, we will assist."[2]
It should also be noted that the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hizbullah, reported on October 8, 2014 that Hizbullah fighters were again operating in the region south of the Litani River, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 5857, Daily Close To Hizbullah: In Violation Of UNSCR 1701, Hizbullah Has Resumed Operations South Of The Litani River, October 13, 2014).
The following are the photos from the @IRGCnetwork tweet and from the post on the Iranian Army-affiliated blog newss.blog.ir:
@IRGCnetwork:
Newss.blog.ir:
