Since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon to expel the PLO, Hezbollah has been a thorn in Israel’s side. Born of that very invasion, the Party — as it is called — waged a relentless guerrilla war against Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon, backed, financed, and trained by Iran. Its ideological allegiance to Tehran was never a secret. In a remarkably candid 2016 speech, the late Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah declared openly what enemies had long alleged: “Hezbollah’s budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, come from the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In a separate address to Iranian nationals in Beirut, Nasrallah went further, proclaiming that “We were born with Iran’s Islamic revolution and acquired our existence and life with the Islamic revolution,” adding that his organization’s devotion to the Iranian Supreme Leader surpassed even that of many Iranians. He warned that “we will consider every hand that tries to take our weapons as an Israeli hand.”

That loyalty came at a profound cost to Hezbollah’s Arab credibility. The Party fought alongside Iranian forces against Iraq in the 1980–1988 war, earning the enduring hatred of Iraqis who viewed it as a Shiite militia in foreign service. Far more damaging was its intervention in Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, one of Hezbollah’s fiercest critics, put the damage bluntly in 2025: “Hezbollah’s actions have effectively set Lebanon back a hundred years, if not more.”

Following the 2006 war with Israel,........

© Middle East Monitor