Lebanese political party and militant group
Hezbollah (;[ 43] Arabic : حزب الله , romanized : Ḥizbu 'llāh , lit. ' Party of God ' )[ a] is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group,[ 44] [ 45] led since 1992 by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah . Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council ,[ 46] and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament . Its armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army in 2016.[ 47]
Hezbollah was established by Lebanese clerics primarily to fight the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon .[ 14] It adopted the model set out by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and the party's founders adopted the name "Hezbollah" as chosen by Khomeini. Since then, close ties have developed between Iran and Hezbollah.[ 48] The organization was created with the support of 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) instructors,[ 49] and aggregated a variety of Lebanese Shia groups into a unified organization to resist the then-current Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon .[ 50] [ 51] [ 14] [ 52] During the Lebanese Civil War , Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its objectives as the expulsion of "the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from Lebanon, putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land".[ 53] Hezbollah also participated in the 1985–2000 South Lebanon conflict against the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and fought again with the IDF in the 2006 Lebanon War . During the 1990s, Hezbollah also organized volunteers to fight for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War .[ 54] [ 55] [ 56] [ 57]
Since 1990, Hezbollah has participated in Lebanese politics, in a process which is described as the Lebanonization of Hezbollah, and it later participated in the government of Lebanon and joined political alliances. After the 2006–08 Lebanese protests [ 58] and clashes ,[ 59] a national unity government was formed in 2008, with Hezbollah and its opposition allies obtaining 11 of 30 cabinet seats, enough to give them veto power.[ 60] In August 2008, Lebanon's new cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement that recognizes Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to "liberate or recover occupied lands" (such as the Shebaa Farms ). Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's March 8 Alliance , in opposition to the March 14 Alliance . It maintains strong support among Lebanese Shia Muslims ,[ 61] while Sunnis have disagreed with its agenda.[ 62] Hezbollah also has support in some Christian areas of Lebanon . Since 2012, Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian civil war has seen it join the Syrian government in its fight against the Syrian opposition , which Hezbollah has described as a Zionist plot and a "Wahhabi -Zionist conspiracy" to destroy its alliance with Bashar al-Assad against Israel.[ 65] [ 66] Between 2013 and 2015, the organization deployed its militia in both Syria and Iraq to fight or train local militias to fight against the Islamic State .[ 67] [ 68] In the 2018 Lebanese general election , Hezbollah held 12 seats and its alliance won the election by gaining 70 out of 128 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon .[ 69] [ 70]
Hezbollah did not disarm after the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, in contravention of the UN Security Council resolution 1701 .[ 71] From 2006, the group's military strength grew significantly,[ 72] [ 73] to the extent that its paramilitary wing became more powerful than the Lebanese Army .[ 74] [ 75] Hezbollah has been described as a "state within a state ",[ 76] and has grown into an organization with seats in the Lebanese government , a radio and a satellite TV station , social services and large-scale military deployment of fighters beyond Lebanon's borders.[ 77] [ 78] [ 79] The group currently receives military training, weapons, and financial support from Iran and political support from Syria,[ 80] although the sectarian nature of the Syrian war has damaged the group's legitimacy.[ 77] [ 81] [ 82] In 2021, Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 fighters.[ 83] Either the entire organization or only its military wing has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, as well as by the European Union .[ 84]
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^ a b c Dalacoura, Katerina (2012). "Islamist Terrorism and National Liberation: Hamas and Hizbullah" . Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . pp. 66–96. doi :10.1017/CBO9780511977367.004 . ISBN 978-0-511-97736-7 . LCCN 2010047275 . S2CID 150958046 .
^ Stepanova, Ekaterina (2008). Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects (PDF) . Oxford University Press. p. 113. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 March 2016.
^ a b c Philip Smyth (February 2015). The Shiite Jihad in Syria and Its Regional Effects (PDF) (Report). The Washington Institute for Near East Studies. pp. 7–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015 .
^ "Hezbollah, the Lebanese Sectarian State, and Sectarianism" . Middle East Institute. Retrieved 13 April 2017 .
^ Bassel F, Salloukh (2015). "The Sectarian Image Reversed: The Role of Geopolitics in Hezbollah's Domestic Politics" . Middle East political science.
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^ Salamey, Imad; Pearson, Frederic (2007). "Hezbollah: A Proletarian Party with an Islamic Manifesto – A Sociopolitical Analysis of Islamist Populism in Lebanon and the Middle East" . Small Wars & Insurgencies . 18 (3): 416–438. doi :10.1080/09592310701674358 . ISSN 0959-2318 . S2CID 143896155 .
^ Elie Alagha, Joseph (2011). Hizbullah's Documents: From the 1985 Open Letter to the 2009 Manifesto . Amsterdam University Press . pp. 15, 20. ISBN 978-90-8555-037-2 . Shehata, Samer (2012). Islamist Politics in the Middle East: Movements and Change . Routledge . p. 176. ISBN 978-0-415-78361-3 .
^ Husseinia, Rola El (2010). "Hezbollah and the Axis of Refusal: Hamas, Iran and Syria". Third World Quarterly . 31 (5): 803–815. doi :10.1080/01436597.2010.502695 . S2CID 219628295 .
^ Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God . Hurst Publishers. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5 . 'Hezbollah's anti-Western militancy began with attacks against Western targets in Lebanon, then expanded to attacks abroad intended to exact revenge for actions threatening its or Iran's interests, or to press foreign governments to release captured operatives.'
^ Hanhimäki, Jussi M.; Blumenau, Bernhard (2013). An International History of Terrorism: Western and Non-Western Experiences . Routledge. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-415-63540-0 . Based upon these beliefs, Hezbollah became vehemently anti-West and anti-Israel.
^ Siegel, Larry J. (2012). Criminology: Theories, Patterns & Typology . Cengage Learning. p. 396. ISBN 978-1-133-04964-7 . Hezbollah is anti-West and anti-Israel and has engaged in a series of terrorist actions including kidnappings, car bombings, and airline hijackings.
^ a b c "Who Are Hezbollah?" . BBC News . 21 May 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008 .
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^ Rosenfeld, Jesse (11 January 2016). "Russia is Arming Hezbollah, Say Two of the Group's Field Commanders" . The Daily Beast .
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^ "Lebanon's Hezbollah denies sending weapons to Yemen" . Reuters . 20 November 2017.
^ "Wagner Group 'tasked to deliver Russian weapons to Hezbollah' – US intelligence" . 4 November 2023.
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^ Francis, Xavier (21 May 2020). "Israel Impressed How Turkish Army Crushed Hezbollah In Idlib, Syria" . Latest Asian, Middle-East, EurAsian, Indian News .
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^ Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God . Hurst Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5 . ... the Jihad Council coordinates 'resistance activity'. Ghattas Saab, Antoine (15 May 2014). "Hezbollah cutting costs as Iranian aid dries up" . The Daily Star . Retrieved 1 June 2014 . ... Hezbollah's military wing ... Known as the 'Jihad Council'
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^ ASSAF, Claude (12 June 2024). "Who is Taleb Abdallah, the Hezbollah commander assassinated in Jwaya?" . L'Orient Today . Retrieved 13 June 2024 . Said Ziad, according to whom Hajj Abou Taleb "commanded the Nasr Unit which shares, with the Aziz unit, an area of operations south of the Litani River, and oversees a very important operational zone stretching from Bint Jbeil to the Shebaa Farms, constituting for Hezbollah the primary defense system of southern Lebanon." "He was thus responsible for the fierce fighting that the Lebanese resistance waged throughout this war (of October 8)," according to Said, who also stated that the slain commander had taken part in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–1995), in support of the Muslim population against Serbian troops.
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^ Barnard, Anne (9 July 2013). "Car Bombing Injures Dozens in Hezbollah Section of Beirut" . The New York Times . Retrieved 30 August 2013 . Hezbollah has portrayed the Syrian uprising as an Israeli-backed plot to destroy its alliance with Mr. Assad against Israel.
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^ Frykberg, Mel (29 August 2008). "Mideast Powers, Proxies and Paymasters Bluster and Rearm" . Middle East Times . Retrieved 31 May 2011 . And if there is one thing that ideologically and diametrically opposed Hezbollah and Israel agree on, it is Hezbollah's growing military strength.
^ Barnard, Anne (20 May 2013). "Hezbollah's Role in Syria War Shakes the Lebanese" . The New York Times . Retrieved 20 June 2013 . Hezbollah, stronger than the Lebanese Army, has the power to drag the country into war without a government decision, as in 2006, when it set off the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers
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^ a b Hubbard, Ben (20 March 2014). "Syrian Fighting Gives Hezbollah New but Diffuse Purpose" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2014 . ... the fighting has also diluted the resources that used to go exclusively to facing Israel, exacerbated sectarian divisions in the region, and alienated large segments of the majority Sunni population who once embraced Hezbollah as a liberation force... Never before have Hezbollah guerrillas fought alongside a formal army, waged war outside Lebanon or initiated broad offensives aimed at seizing territory.
^ Deeb, Lara (31 July 2006). "Hizballah: A Primer" . Middle East Report. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2011 .
^ Goldman, Adam (28 May 2014). "Hezbollah operative wanted by FBI dies in fighting in Syria" . The Washington Post . Retrieved 30 May 2014 . ... Hasan Nasrallah has called the deployment of his fighters to Syria a 'new phase' for the movement, and it marks the first time the group has sent significant numbers of men outside Lebanon's borders.
^ Filkins, Dexter (30 September 2013). "The Shadow Commander" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 4 October 2013 . From 2000 to 2006, Iran contributed a hundred million dollars a year to Hezbollah. Its fighters are attractive proxies: unlike the Iranians, they speak Arabic, making them better equipped to operate in Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world.
^ "Hezbollah's Syrian Quagmires" (PDF) . The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014 . By siding with the Assad regime, the regime's Alawite supporters, and Iran, and taking up arms against Sunni rebels, Hezbollah has placed itself at the epicenter of a sectarian conflict that has nothing to do with the group's purported raison d'être: 'resistance' to Israeli occupation.
^ Kershner, Isabel (10 March 2014). "Israel Watches Warily as Hezbollah Gains Battle Skills in Syria" . The New York Times . Retrieved 30 May 2014 . ... the Lebanese group's image at home and in the broader Arab world has been severely damaged because it is fighting Sunni rebels in Syria while its legitimacy rested on its role in fighting Israel.
^ El Deeb, Sarah (18 October 2021). "Hezbollah leader declares his group has 100,000 fighters" . Associated Press News . Retrieved 21 October 2021 .
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