Iranian support, including financial aid, deployment of Revolutionary Guards, and training, has played an important role in Hezbollah's formation and development. Hezbollah has functioned as Iran's proxy since its inception, and is considered to be part of the "Axis of Resistance".[1]
Hezbollah itself, founded in 1982, originated as an Iranian-backed Shi'ite militant group in Lebanon. The organization's founders adopted the model outlined by Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and its forces were trained by a contingent of Revolutionary Guards from Iran. Hezbollah officially aligned itself with the Iranian regime in 1985, and the close relationship between Hezbollah and Iran has persisted ever since.
Iran considers its relationship with Hezbollah as crucial, as it provides Iran with a means to expand its influence in the Levant, exert pressure on Israel and US interests, discourage any attempts at regime change, and uphold its ideological commitments.[2]
Hezbollah has received substantial financial support from Iran, estimated to range from $700 million to $1 billion annually. Additionally, Iran provides weapons, training, and other forms of assistance to Hezbollah.[3][4]
Background
Hezbollah was established in 1982 by young Shi’a Lebanese clerics who had studied in Najaf. The organization adopted the model outlined by Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and its founders chose the name "Hezbollah" as instructed by Khomeini.[5] Lebanese Hezbollah, or the "Party of God," emerged from an Iranian initiative to unite various militant Shi’a groups in Lebanon during a period of domestic and regional instability, particularly the country's civil war. The organization is considered by some an attempt by Lebanon's historically marginalized Shi’a Muslims to assert economic and political influence
Hezbollah's forces were trained and organized by a contingent of 1,500 Revolutionary Guards from Iran, with permission from the Syrian government. They were allowed to transit through the eastern highlands of Syrian-controlled Lebanon and establish a base in the Bekaa Valley during Lebanon's occupation.[6]
Iranian support, including the deployment of Revolutionary Guards and financial aid, played a significant role in Hezbollah's formation and development. Initially, Hezbollah operated as a network of radical Shia paramilitary groups with shared strategic goals, such as establishing an Islamic republic, but differing on tactical matters.[7]
Following the opening of the 1982 war marked by Israel's invasion of Lebanon some 800 Revolutionary Guards were sent to Lebanon through Syria to help recruit Hezbollahi, provide political and religious indoctrination and military training, including instruction in terrorist tactics.[8]
In July 1982, Iran reacted to the war by deploying 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) advisers to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley with the aim of establishing and training a new Shiite militia, which later transformed into Hezbollah. The approximately 1,500 Pasdaran set up their headquarters in the Syrian-controlled Beqaa Valley, where they organized training camps. Under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the fighters underwent guerrilla training, and military material was established in the Bekaa Valley in 1982. Iran sent a contingent of Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon, ostensibly to combat the Israeli invaders. Iran provided financial support to the newly-formed Islamist groups, including Hezbollah.[9]
In 1985, Hezbollah officially aligned itself with the Iranian regime and Ayatollah Khomeini's leadership. Hezbollah has functioned as Iran's proxy since its inception, and it is estimated that Iran provides substantial financial support, ranging from $700 million to $1 billion annually.[4]
Islamic Jihad Organisation proxy
Hezbollah adopted the alias Islamic Jihad Organization to create plausible deniability and obscure its connection with Iran.[10][11]
Despite attempts to maintain separation, evidence, including declassified information, revealed the close relationship between Hezbollah, its Islamic Jihad terrorist wing, and Iran.[12]
In 1983 the CIA reported that Islamic Jihad “more likely is a cover used by Iran for its terrorist operations, whether employing local Shias in Lebanon or locally recruited agents of other nationalities” and that “[s]urrogates provide Iran with an excellent means for creating the illusion that an independent, international organization is at work against U.S. interests.”[13]
The use of the Islamic Jihad alias was an attempt to create the illusion of an independent, international organization working against U.S. interests. While initially loosely organized, Iran played a key role in transforming Islamic Jihad into the organized entity known as Hezbollah. The formalization and professionalization of Hezbollah occurred through substantial support from Iran, including money, weaponry, personnel, training, and guidance.[14]
Iranian embassy officials in Damascus and the IRGC were actively involved in coordinating radical Shi’a activities through the Council of Lebanon, within Lebanon. According to US intelligence, thus solidifying Hezbollah as a significant arm of Iran's military apparatus.[15] Iranian auxiliaries were embedded within Hezbollah units, sharing communication and support networks.[16]
Ideological and religious influence
Iranian influence took shape through shared ideological, cultural, and religious principles derived from the Iranian Revolution and the concept of waliyat al-faqih (guardianship of the jurist).[17]
Hezbollah embraced Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary message and its clerics committed to establishing a fundamentalist state on a global scale. The early growth of Hezbollah can be attributed to the influence of Iranian-trained clerics and a dedication to Ayatollah Khomeini and the mission of sparking an Islamic revolution in Lebanon.[18]
The close connection between the Shi’a religious hierarchy in Lebanon and Iran is also historical and through familial ties, involving the training of Lebanese clerics in Iran, intermarriage with Iranian clerical families, and the propagation of Iranian theological discourse. Beyond educational and familial routes, Iranian ideology permeated Lebanon through official channels, with the IRGC in Lebanon providing not only paramilitary and terrorist skills but also political and religious indoctrination. In 1987, the CIA emphasized that while an independent Islamic fundamentalist movement might have emerged in Lebanon, Iranian support significantly accelerated its development.[19][20]
Hezbollah autonomy
Hezbollah has sought to present an image of autonomy. The organization's founding statement “to determine our fate by our own hands”.[20] Hezbollah, whilst advocating an Iran-inspired Islamist regime, states that it wishes for the Lebanese to have freedom of determination.[21]
Financial Funding
Hezbollah receives funding from several sources including the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria, the Lebanese diaspora, international crime and legal businesses.[22]
Iran is believed to provide substantial financial support to Hezbollah, ranging from at least $100 million to a potentially higher figure of around $200 million annually. In 2020 according to the state department, Hezbollah received US$700 million from Iran.[3]
This increased funding is thought to align with Iran's interest in destabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to US intelligence, Hezbollah serves as a key proxy in achieving this objective. The support extends beyond cash funds, with Iranian cargo planes delivering weapons, including rockets and small arms, to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Material assistance is also channeled through purportedly private charities closely affiliated with Iran's revolutionary elite.[23]
Hezbollah has obtained weaponry supplied by Iran, including 11,500 missiles deployed in southern Lebanon. 3,000 Hezbollah militants have undergone training in Iran, covering various skills such as guerrilla warfare, missile and rocket artillery firing, unmanned drone operation, naval warfare, and conventional military operations.[24]
Iran provides financial and material aid and offers training, establishing training programs and camps. For instance, as of August 2002, Iran was reported to have financed and established terrorist training camps in the Syrian-controlled Beka'a Valley to train Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and PFLP-GC terrorists. Iran has consistently supported Hezbollah's involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, assigning Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's international operations commander, to assist Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas and PIJ.[25]
Iran's financially supports Hezbollah affiliated media, notably the television station al-Manar, called the "station of resistance."[26][27][28][29]
Iran according to the US indirectly funds al-Manar, contributing to its approximately $15 million annual budget, with estimates suggesting Iran provides $100–200 million per year to Hezbollah, which is then transferred to the TV station.[30][27]
Weapons
Missiles found abroad Francop
Hezbollah has obtained weaponry supplied by Iran, with 11,500 missiles already positioned in southern Lebanon. 3,000 Hezbollah militants have completed training in Iran, covering various aspects such as guerrilla warfare, missile and rocket artillery firing, operation of unmanned drones, naval warfare, and conventional military operations.[31]
Mahmoud Ali Suleiman, the Hezbollah operative captured by the IDF in August 2006 for his involvement in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers during a cross-border raid on July 12, confessed during his interrogation to receiving weapons training and religious instruction in Iran. He informed interrogators that he traveled in a civilian car to Damascus and then flew to Iran. Apart from the Russian-made Katyusha, Hezbollah's reported artillery cache consists entirely of Iranian-made weapons.[32][33]
History
1980s-2006
In June 1985, Hezbollah hijacked TWA Flight 847, demanding the release of 700 Shiite Muslims. The hijackers, with logistical support from Iran, engaged in a campaign that included killing a U.S. Navy diver and threatening Jewish passengers. Hezbollah has denied its involvement.[34][35][36]
On March 27, 1992, Islamic Jihad, a group linked to Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, resulting in 20 deaths and 252 injuries. The US National Security Agency and the Israeli intelligence found that the highest levels of the Iranian government had authorized the attack. Seven Iranian diplomats were expelled from Argentina after the Argentine government stated they had convincing proof of Iranian involvement.[37][38]
On July 18, 1998, in Islamic Jihad took credit for a blast outside the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, resulting in 95 fatalities and 200 injuries. In 2004, Argentine intelligence determined that a 21-year-old Hezbollah operative executed the attack with logistical support from Iran. The bombing is the deadliest terrorist incident in Argentina. In 2006, Argentine authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, the head of Iranian intelligence, accusing him of orchestrating the operation. Subsequently, in 2007, INTERPOL added Ali Fallahian, along with four other Iranian officials and one Hezbollah member, to its most wanted list, citing their purported involvement in the bombing.[39][40]
May 17, 1995: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Shura Council member Mohammad Yazbek as his religious representatives in Lebanon.[41]
June 25, 1996: Hezbollah, with Iranian support, claimed responsibility for a truck bombing near Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring 500. In 2001, a US federal court alleged that an Iranian officer was involved in the directing of the operation.[42]
Aug. 1, 2005: Nasrallah met with Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad in Tehran.[43][44]
2006 Lebanon war
An Iranian missile, found in a Hezbollah stash, 2006
Jane's Defence Weekly, a defense industry magazine, disclosed on August 4, 2006, that during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Hezbollah formally requested Iran to provide a continuous stream of weapons to bolster its operations against Israel. According to Western diplomatic sources cited in the report, Iranian authorities assured Hezbollah of an ongoing supply of weapons for "the next stage of the confrontation".
Iran has denied supplying Hezbollah with weapons.[45][46] Multiple reports have consistently pointed to the contrary.[47] Mohtashami Pur, a former ambassador to Lebanon and the current secretary-general of the 'Intifada conference,' stated in an Iranian newspaper that Iran had supplied the missiles to the Shiite militia. He further emphasized that Hezbollah had the endorsement of his country to deploy the weapons in defense of Lebanon.[48]
The Israel Defense Forces regard Hezbollah as virtually an arm of the Iranian armed forces; a senior Israeli defence official told Jane's Defence Weekly that "we should consider that what we are facing in Lebanon is not a militia but rather a special forces brigade of the Iranian Army."[49]
During a 2007 interview with the Iranian Arabic-language TV station al-Qawthar, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem stated that the endorsement of the ayatollahs in Tehran is necessary for all suicide bombings and other operations in Lebanon. In 2008, Iran commemorated a recently deceased Hezbollah leader by issuing a postage stamp.
2010: The leaders of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran meet in Damascus.[51]
May 2008: Hezbollah operatives planned a bomb attack against the Israeli embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan in retaliation of the killing of Imad Mughniyah, but Azerbaijani authorities foiled the plot, revealing alleged IRGC-ordered attacks against U.S., Israeli, and Western embassies.[52]
February 26, 2010: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hosted Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah.[53]
October 13–14, 2010: President Ahmadinejad visited Lebanon, expressing anti-Zionist sentiments in Bint Jbeil and meeting with Nasrallah.[54]
December 16, 2010: Iran reportedly reduced funding to Hezbollah by 40 percent due to international sanctions over its nuclear program.[55]
February 7, 2012: Nasrallah acknowledged Iran's comprehensive support for Hezbollah since 1982, rejecting U.S. allegations of money laundering and drug smuggling.[56]
February 13, 2012: Coordinated bombing attempts in India and Georgia targeted Israeli embassy personnel, with Israel attributing the operations to Tehran and Hezbollah.[57]
October 11, 2012: Nasrallah confirmed Hezbollah's drone incursion into Israel, boasting of Iran's support in assembling the drone in Lebanon.[59]
May 25, 2013: Nasrallah admitted Hezbollah's involvement in Syria, emphasizing Syria's role as the resistance's backbone.[60][61]
April 14, 2014: In Southeast Asia, a Hezbollah network involved in a failed truck-bombing targeting the Israeli embassy in Bangkok had close ties to Iranian intelligence agents, indicating the interconnected nature of their operations. These instances highlight the direct contacts each Hezbollah cell maintains with senior Hezbollah and/or Iranian intelligence operatives.[62][63]
November 22, 2014: IRGC General claimed Iran provided Hezbollah with Fateh missiles capable of reaching any target in Israel.[64]
January 18, 2015: Israeli airstrike killed IRGC General Allah-Dadi and six Hezbollah fighters in Syria's Golan Heights.[65][66]
December 22, 2016: Hezbollah played a key role in aiding the Syrian government, an Iranian ally in their victory against rebels in a pivotal battle.[67]
September 2019: With the support of Iran, Hezbollah reportedly established a facility in the Bekaa Valley for manufacturing precision-guided missiles.[68]
January 5, 2020: Following the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ general Qassem Soleimani, Hezbollah Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah pledged to push U.S. forces out of the Middle East to avenge Gen. Qassem Soleimani's killing.[69][70]
February 9, 2022: Nasrallah said “a strong regional state and any war with it will blow up the entire region”, he denied automatic obedience to Tehran, stating Hezbollah's actions are for Lebanon's sake.[71]
October 12, 2023: Iranian Foreign Minister met Nasrallah in Beirut to discuss the war between Hamas and Israel, in the meeting, Hezbollah expressed readiness to respond to Israeli acts.[72][73]
July 10, 2024: Newly elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian promises support to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other Islamic resistance and jihadi groups according to IRNA, Iranian state media.[74]
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militia. From 1992 until 2024, it was led by Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council. The entire organization, or its military wing alone, has been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including most Western nations. Nasrallah was assassinated in an airstrike in Beirut in September 2024.
The Islamic Jihad Organization was a Lebanese Shia militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, alias al-Hajj Radwan, was a Lebanese militant leader who was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about Mughniyeh is limited, but he is believed to have been Hezbollah's chief of staff and understood to have overseen Hezbollah's military, intelligence, and security apparatuses. He was one of the main founders of Hezbollah in the 1980s. He has been described as "a brilliant military tactician and very elusive". He was often referred to as an ‘untraceable ghost’.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khomeini as a military branch in May 1979, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. Whereas the Iranian Army protects the country's sovereignty in a traditional capacity, the IRGC's constitutional mandate is to ensure the integrity of the Islamic Republic. Most interpretations of this mandate assert that it entrusts the IRGC with preventing foreign interference in Iran, thwarting coups by the traditional military, and crushing "deviant movements" that harm the ideological legacy of the Islamic Revolution. Currently, the IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization by Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United States.
The relations between Iran and Israel are divided into four major phases: the ambivalent period from 1947 to 1953, the friendly period during the era of the Pahlavi dynasty from 1953 to 1979, the worsening period following the Iranian Revolution from 1979 to 1990, and the ongoing period of open hostility since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. In 1947, Iran was among 13 countries that voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for the British Mandate of Palestine. Two years later, Iran also voted against Israel's admission to the United Nations.
The Quds Force is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. According to Michael Wigginton et al., the Al-Quds Force is "a classic example of state-sponsored terrorism."
Hezbollah originated within the Shiite block of Lebanese society. According to the CIA World Factbook estimate in 2022, Shiites comprise 31.2 percent of Lebanon's population, predominating in three areas of Lebanon: Southern Lebanon, Beirut and its environs (Dahieh), and the northern Beqaa valley region.
Hezbollah has a military branch and is the sponsor of a number of lesser-known groups, some of which may be little more than fronts for Hezbollah itself. These groups include the Organization of the Oppressed, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, the Organization of Right Against Wrong, and Followers of the Prophet Muhammad.
Hezbollah has a Foreign Relations Unit and maintains relations with a number of foreign countries and entities. These are particularly Shia states, but also Sunni groups like those affiliated with the Palestinian cause; and the group is also suggested to have operations outside the Middle East in places such as Latin America and North Korea.
Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused by several countries of training, financing, and providing weapons and safe havens for non-state militant actors, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and other Palestinian groups such as the Islamic Jihad (IJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). These groups are designated terrorist groups by a number of countries and international bodies such as the EU, UN, and NATO; however, Iran considers such groups to be "national liberation movements" with a right to self-defense against Israeli military occupation. These proxies are used by Iran across the Middle East and Europe to foment instability, expand the scope of the Islamic Revolution, and carry out terrorist attacks against Western targets in the regions. Its special operations unit, the Quds Force, is known to provide arms, training, and financial support to militias and political movements across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.
Since the establishment of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the organization has been involved in economic and military activities, some of them controversial.
The Axis of Resistance is an informal Iranian-led political and military coalition in the Middle East.
Mustafa Badreddine, also known as Mustafa Badr Al Din, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Mustafa Youssef Badreddine, Sami Issa, and Elias Fouad Saab, was a military leader of Hezbollah and both the cousin and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh. He was nicknamed Dhu al-Fiqar referring to the legendary sword of Ali. His death was seen as one of the biggest blows in the Hezbollah leadership.
Hashim Safi Al Din is a Lebanese Shia cleric, senior Hezbollah official that currently serves as its Secretary-General. He is the maternal cousin of the former secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. The head of Hezbollah's Executive Council, he was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States and a terrorist by Saudi Arabia. He was generally considered the "number two" in Hezbollah before Nasrallah's assassination in 2024.
The Iran–Israel proxy conflict, also known as the Iran–Israel proxy war or Iran–Israel Cold War, is an ongoing proxy conflict between Iran and Israel. In the Israeli–Lebanese conflict, Iran has supported Lebanese Shia militias, most notably Hezbollah. In the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iran has backed Palestinian groups such as Hamas. Israel has supported Iranian rebels, such as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, conducted airstrikes against Iranian allies in Syria and assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists. In 2018 Israeli forces directly attacked Iranian forces in Syria.
The January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident was an airstrike against a two-car convoy that killed six Hezbollah fighters, including two prominent commanders, and a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, at al-Amal Farms in the Quneitra District of Syria, in the Eastern Golan Heights, on 18 January 2015, during the Syrian Civil War. The attack was largely attributed to Israel, which did not officially confirm that it carried it out. Hezbollah and IRGC held Israel responsible and threatened to retaliate. On 19 January 2015, Al-Nusra Front member Abu Azzam al-Idlibi claimed that Jihad Mughniyeh and the other Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Al-Nusra Front ambush at Jaroud in the Qalamoun Mountains in the Al-Qutayfah District northeast of Damascus, claiming that it "will be the end of the Persian project, God willing."
The Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency is an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric conflict in Sistan and Baluchestan Province between Iran and several Baloch Sunni militant organizations designated as terrorist organizations by the Iranian government. It began in 2004 and is part of the wider Balochistan conflict.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in an ongoing struggle for influence in the Middle East and other regions of the Muslim world. The two countries have provided varying degrees of support to opposing sides in nearby conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria and Yemen; and disputes in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, and Iraq. The struggle also extends to disputes or broader competition in other countries globally including in West, North and East Africa, South, Central, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.
Jihad Mughniyah was a Lebanese politician and prominent member of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, and the son of Imad Mughniyeh. He was killed in 2015 in the Mazraat Amal incident, an airstrike attributed to Israel.
The Hezbollah-Russia relationship is of several parameters including an economic partnership, weapon trades and military assistance.
↑ Akbarzadeh, S. (2019). Proxy Relations: Iran and Hezbollah. In Routledge Handbook of International Relations in the Middle East (pp. 321-329). Routledge.
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