In the latest news, Russian intelligence services has been providing valuable intelligence to the Hezbollah terrorist group concerning Israeli military activities, prompting concerns in Tel Aviv that any future initiatives against Hezbollah may not come as a surprise. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence reports are based on interceptions acquired via its enlarged, nearly dominant presence in the Middle Eastern countries, to include participation in their geo-political affairs. As an example, Russia now has a new naval base in Tartus, Syria. The Syrians have also allowed the Russians to further enlarge the facilities at Tartus in order to increase their naval presence in the region. Geographically, the port city of Tartus is only 25 miles from Lebanon's northern border with Syria. Russia's increased presence in Syria is meant to dampen and/or deter any notion of attacks, either on Syria, Lebanon or Iran. At the same time, it has permitted the Russians to introduce sophisticated surveillance systems capable of covering all of Lebanon and Syria, plus Iran's northern half. For Hezbollah, such coverage comes at a time when Israel has warned that it will launch attacks on its positions in Lebanon should there be any provocations into Israel launched from Lebanon. To date, Israel has not officially commented on reports regarding FSB-Hezbollah co-operations. However, were it not for the intelligence provided by the Israeli spy network in Lebanon, the Israeli Air Force would not have knocked out Russian made medium-range missiles used by Hezbollah during the 2006 war with Israel. The prospect of co-operations between the FSB and Hezbollah has led to one unconfirmed report from one official Israeli website, claiming the Russian intelligence service did assist Hezbollah in uncovering an alleged Israeli spy ring in Lebanon. Called the Al-Alam spy ring, they operate primarily in Southern Lebanon, which led to the arrest of approximately 70 sympathizers of varying national origins abetting Hezbollah. In addition to Lebanese, the alleged spies also were said to be Palestinian and Egyptian citizens. The spy ring was started and quickly developed following the 2006 failed Israeli military efforts in Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah. To date, the Russians have not commented on providing information to Hezbollah.

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