Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with an active paramilitary wing whose military and security activities have been prohibited by the Lebanese government since March 2026, amid the 2026 Lebanon war. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, 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. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Lebanese Shiite clerics in close cooperation with Iran. It emerged in the context of the Lebanese civil war, the collapse of central authority, Iran's strategic interests in Lebanon, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The movement's formation was shaped by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's model of Islamic governance. Hezbollah subsequently established strong ties with Iran as part of the "Axis of Resistance". The group was initially supported by 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) instructors, who helped unify various Lebanese Shia factions under Hezbollah's leadership. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto outlined its key objectives, which include expelling Western influence from the region, destroying Israel, pledging allegiance to Iran's supreme leader, and establishing an Islamic government influenced by Iran's political ideology. However, the manifesto also emphasised Lebanese self-determination. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hezbollah fought against Israeli forces and the South Lebanon Army (SLA), eventually leading to Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah also played a prominent role in the 2006 Lebanon War and later became involved in the Syrian civil war, where it fought alongside the government of Bashar al-Assad against the ultimately victorious Syrian opposition forces. In 2009, Hezbollah issued a new manifesto to oppose political sectarianism, broaden its appeal to non-Islamic movements, and promote a national unity government. The updated manifesto retained the same basic...