Hezbollah

Hezbollah was established by Lebanese clerics primarily to fight the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.^[14] It adopted the model set out by Ayatollah 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 former 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 organised 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 Lebanonisation 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][63] Hezbollah also has support in some Christian areas of Lebanon.^[64] 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 organisation 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, including by the European Union^[84] and, since 2017, also by most member states of the Arab League, with two exceptions – Lebanon, where Hezbollah is one of the country's most influential political parties, and Iraq.^[85] Russia does not view Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization" but as a "legitimate socio-political force".^[86]

Secret services

Hezbollah's secret services have been described as "one of the best in the world", and have even infiltrated the Israeli army. Hezbollah's secret services collaborate with the Lebanese intelligence agencies.^[154]


In the summer of 1982, Hezbollah's Special Security Apparatus was created by Hussein al-Khalil, now a "top political adviser to Nasrallah";^[200] while Hezbollah's counterintelligence was initially managed by Iran's Quds Force,^[201]: 238 the organization continued to grow during the 1990s. By 2008, scholar Carl Anthony Wege writes, "Hizballah had obtained complete dominance over Lebanon's official state counterintelligence apparatus, which now constituted a Hizballah asset for counterintelligence purposes."^[202]: 775 This close connection with Lebanese intelligence helped bolster Hezbollah's financial counterintelligence unit.^{[202]: 772, 775}


According to Ahmad Hamzeh, Hezbollah's counterintelligence service is divided into Amn al-Muddad, responsible for "external" or "encounter" security; and Amn al-Hizb, which protects the organization's integrity and its leaders. According to Wege, Amn al-Muddad "may have received specialized intelligence training in Iran and possibly North Korea".^{[202]: 773–774} The organization also includes a military security component, as well as an External Security Organization (al-Amn al-Khariji or Unit 910) that operates covertly outside Lebanon.^[201]: 238


Successful Hezbollah counterintelligence operations include thwarting the CIA's attempted kidnapping of foreign operations chief Hassan Ezzeddine in 1994, the 1997 manipulation of a double agent that led to the Ansariya ambush, and the 2000 kidnapping of alleged Mossad agent Elhanan Tannenbaum.^[202]: 773 In 2006, Hezbollah collaborated with the Lebanese government to detect Adeeb al-Alam, a former colonel, as an Israeli spy.^[202]: 774 Hezbollah recruited IDF Lieutenant Colonel Omar al-Heib, who was convicted in 2006 of conducting surveillance for Hezbollah.^[202]: 776 In 2009, Hezbollah apprehended Marwan Faqih, a garage owner who installed tracking devices in Hezbollah-owned vehicles.^[202]: 774


Hezbollah's counterintelligence apparatus uses electronic surveillance and intercept technologies. By 2011, Hezbollah counterintelligence began to use software to analyze cellphone data and detect espionage. Suspicious callers were then subjected to conventional surveillance. In the mid-1990s, Hezbollah was able to "download unencrypted video feeds from Israeli drones,"^[202]: 777 and Israeli SIGINT efforts intensified after the 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon. With possible help from Iran and the Russian FSB, Hezbollah augmented its electronic counterintelligence capabilities, and succeeded in 2008 in detecting Israeli bugs near Mount Sannine and in the organization's fiber optic network.^{[202]: 774, 777–778}

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