Baladi News
Arsal and its environs are considered one of the main points in Hezbollah's plan to control the Syrian-Lebanese border as Arsal represents for Hezbollah an important interim objective to complete the route connecting Iran with the Mediterranean and work on securing it and preparing the fortified supply and storage points, including al-Qalamoun and Arsal, as they contain important mountain blocks which enable it to create a lot of military areas and warehouses, which are very needed in the strategy of Hezbollah while controlling the city and its military strategy for the stage after controlling Syria and the expected attacks to be carried out north or south, as building such military warehouses in the mountains means the difference between a total destruction of their military abilities and surviving in any battle with an enemy with superior air force like Turkey or the gulf states.
As for the strategic importance for Arsal, it's considered an important crossing from Syria towards east Lebanon then the south of it reaching the sea and it will have an important role in the way of planting and trading drugs which Iran is working on making it the second most important strategical advantage of this crossing.
Tehran is now seeing to be one of the most producers and exporters of drugs in the world and this will enable Iran to enter the European market and gain an enormous amount of money out of this trade which means providing the cash necessary to buy sophisticated weapons and technology along with recruiting more agents.
The demographic benefit behind the battle of Arsal is displacing the Syrian refugees from the region as Hezbollah and Iran consider them a huge demographic problem in the region, especially that no solution for their situation is available yet and Iran is afraid that the region will come to state similar to that of the Palestinian camps which it couldn't control in Lebanon and this forms a real threat to its existence and future in the region.