BEIRUT: Even as Arab countries step up pressure on Hezbollah
for its ties to Iran, the Lebanese Shia militant group has cemented its
status as a regional power, projecting military strength beyond
Lebanon’s borders and weathering political crises at home.
The
group’s rise comes as Iran and Saudi Arabia vie for hegemony in the
region, intensifying conflicts from Syria to Yemen. Saudi Arabia sees
Hezbollah as Iran’s most potent proxy, and in recent weeks has
spearheaded an effort to isolate the movement.
But Hezbollah’s dominant position was made apparent this month in the ongoing saga of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
According to US and Lebanese officials, Saudi Arabia forced Hariri’s resignation,
shattering Lebanon’s coalition government, which included Hezbollah
ministers. Saudi Arabia hoped the move would undermine Iran by paving
the way for more aggressive action against the Shia militants, the
officials say.
Instead, it rallied Lebanon in support of
its prime minister and cast Hezbollah as the stabilising force. On
Wednesday, Hariri announced he was suspending his resignation as he held
talks with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.
Now Hezbollah
is set to potentially benefit from the turmoil, using its political and
military prowess — and vast social networks in Lebanon — to entrench
itself further. From its strongholds in southern Lebanon, where it made
its name fighting Israeli troops, to the battlefields of Syria,
Hezbollah is ascendant, with few able to challenge it.
“The
Saudis hoped that Hariri’s resignation would create an electroshock ...
that the cabinet would be immediately dissolved, and Hezbollah and its
allies would have to step down from ministries and other important
positions of power,” said Raphaël Lefèvre, a non-resident scholar at the
Carnegie Middle East Center. “Of course, this never happened.”
Hezbollah
became stronger after the Syrian war began, when it joined forces with
Syria’s Iranian-backed government to battle Sunni rebels, he said. And
“its influence in the heart of Lebanon’s security institutions is
certainly greater than ever before”.
A nation of just six
million, Lebanon is governed through a power-sharing agreement among
the country’s main religious groups — Christians, and Sunni and Shia
Muslims. The prime minister is Sunni. The speaker of parliament, a Shia,
and the Christian president are both Hezbollah allies. Hezbollah holds
10 seats in parliament and two cabinet positions.
But the
movement also draws strength from outside Lebanon’s formal power
structures, where it is at once social provider and political kingmaker,
as well as a fearsome non-state army and Iranian-backed proxy.
Its
capabilities arguably eclipse those of the Lebanese armed forces, and
its social services — from schools to charities and technical assistance
to farmers — have cultivated fierce loyalty among Shia and other
communities.
“Hezbollah thrives of course on its position
of being a state within a state, an alternative provider for all kinds
of things,” said Heiko Wimmen, project director for Iraq, Lebanon and
Syria at the International Crisis Group, a not-for-profit that
researches violent conflict.
In times of crisis, when
Lebanon’s political institutions are weakened, “what Hezbollah provides
for its constituencies becomes more important”, he said. “They are so
firmly entrenched in their communities on the one hand, and they are so
secure in their position vis-à-vis state institutions on the other.”
As
a guerrilla force, Hezbollah traces its origins to Israel’s occupation
of South Lebanon from 1985-2000, when attacks on Israeli troops prompted
their eventual withdrawal from Lebanese territory. Hezbollah fought
another war with Israel in 2006 — one that ended in stalemate but raised
its status as a capable deterrent force.
But it was the
fighting in Syria that catapulted the group to its position as a
transnational organisation with capabilities rivalling the region’s
armies.
Hezbollah has lost thousands of fighters in
Syria, “but it has also recruited many new members ... and has gained
new skills that turn it from a paramilitary group able to wage guerrilla
operations into an actual mini-army”, Lefèvre said.
It
now has its own tank divisions and special operations units, coordinates
with the Syrian and Russian armies in Syria, and leads complex
offensives in hostile territories, he said. It also receives a steady
flow of cash and weapons from Iran, where ruling Shia clerics have
nurtured Hezbollah’s rise.
As a result, Hezbollah has led
offensive operations against Sunni extremists on the Syria-Lebanon
border, coordinating with the Lebanese army but also relegating it to
the background.
“Hezbollah was obliged to play this role,
because whenever the Lebanese government doesn’t fulfil its duty to
protect the people, somebody has to defend them,” said Mohammed Obeid, a
political analyst who is close to Hezbollah.
In those
offensives — in the Lebanese towns of Arsal and Qalamoun — Hezbollah and
Lebanon’s army has expelled Al Qaeda and militant Islamic State
group-linked militants.
“This coordination doesn’t mean
that Hezbollah is controlling the decisions of the Lebanese army,” Obeid
said of the operations. “But [the fighting] is not easy for the
Lebanese army. And Hezbollah is everywhere.”
While it
remains popular, particularly in the face of what many Lebanese see as
Saudi aggression, Hezbollah needs to maintain nationwide support. The
group has billed itself as a defender of all of Lebanon’s communities,
and seeks to cultivate Sunni allies inside and outside the government.
Hariri,
who is Sunni, has long been a Hezbollah opponent. But when he resigned
from his post on Nov 4, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah
accused the Saudi government of detaining the embattled premier — and
called for his immediate return home.
“Hezbollah
definitely wants Sunni allies,” Wimmen said. “The whole outlook of the
movement, at least on the surface, is not a sectarian one.”
In the meantime, even some Lebanese who say they are not affiliated with Hezbollah are still ardent supporters of the group.
“There
are people with Hezbollah for ideological reasons and there are people
with Hezbollah because they are protecting us,” said Bilal Ballout, a
credit collection agent from southern Lebanon. “Lebanese forces are
giving as much as they can. But Hezbollah has an army.”
“When you get popular power, you get political power,” he said. “And Hezbollah gets better and stronger every single day.”
Saudi Arabia ‘imposed’ Hariri’s resignation: Hezbollah
BEIRUT: Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, said on
Sunday the resignation of Saad Hariri had been “imposed” by Saudi
Arabia.
“It is clear that the resignation was a Saudi
decision that was imposed on Prime Minister Hariri. It was not his
intention, not his wish and not his decision” to quit, Nasrallah said in
a televised address.
Earlier, Hariri cited the “grip” of Hezbollah ally Iran on the country, and also said he feared for his life.
“We
did not seek this resignation,” said Nasrallah, whose powerful movement
has participated in Hariri’s government for almost a year.
He
did not directly address the accusations levelled by what he called
Hariri’s “very hard” speech, saying only that these were “a matter for
Saudi Arabia”.
Nasrallah questioned the timing of
Hariri’s announcement at a time when “things are proceeding normally...
in the heart of government” in Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader also questioned why Hariri gave his resignation speech from Saudi Arabia.
“Is
he at home? Will they let him return? These are legitimate concerns,”
he said, referring to a purge of princes, ministers and businessmen in
Saudi Arabia in an anti-corruption operation.
