Encyclopedia
Hezbollah is a
Shia Islamist organization in Lebanon. It follows a distinct version of
Islamic Shia ideology developed by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the
Islamic Revolution in Iran.
The organization began to take shape during the
1982 Lebanon War; on February 16 1985 Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin publicly declared the group's manifesto, which included three goals: the eradication of
Western imperialism in Lebanon, the transformation of Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Islamic state, and the complete destruction of the state of
Israel..
Hezbollah has abandoned the goal of transforming Lebanon into an Islamic republic , but continues to call for the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah has received arms, soldiers, and financial support from Iran, and many other sympathizers and has "operated with Syria's blessing." Hezbollah has grown to an organization which has seats in the Lebanese government, a militia, a radio and a
satellite television station, and programs for social development. Hezbollah's use of violent means to achieve some of their goals has caused some to label it as a
terrorist organization, while others consider the violence to have been recriprocal to external aggression and a legitimate form of Jihad.
Since 1992, the current leader and Secretary-General of Hezbollah is Sheikh Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah.
Introduction and background
Hezbollah is one of the two main organizations representing the
Shia community, Lebanon's largest religious bloc. The organization had its origins in the early
1980s in a milieu which included the recent
Iranian Islamic Revolution, political and secular conflict in Lebanon, and the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Ending Israel's occupation of Southern Lebanon was the main focus of the group's early activities.
Israel had become militarily involved in Lebanon in combat with the
Palestine Liberation Organization who moved into Southern Lebanon after being ousted from Jordan. The PLO was attacking Israel from Southern Lebanon in the lead up to the 1982 Lebanon War, and Israel had invaded and occupied Lebanon to protect its Northern border.
According to the BBC, "[f]or many years, Hezbollah was synonymous with terror, suicide bombings and kidnappings. The organization is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups to use tactical
suicide bombing against foreign soldiers in the Middle East. Hezbollah's acts have included multiple kidnappings,
murders,
hijackings, and bombings
. The organization has been subject to assassination and abduction by Israel as well . Hezbollah's violent acts are characterized by some countries as
terrorist attacks; while others regard them as legitimate resistance and some others regard them as Jihad.
Supporters of Hezbollah justify Hezbollah's attacks against Israel for several reasons. Firstly, Hezbollah supporters cite the occupation of Lebanese land. Many of these attacks took place while Israel occupied the southern part of
Lebanon and held it as a security zone in spite of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 425. Although Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and their complete withdrawal was verified by the
United Nations, Lebanon considers the
Shebaa farms, captured by Israel from
Syria in the 1967 war and considered by the UN to be disputed territory between Syria and Israel, to be Lebanese territory. Additionally, Israel holds thousands of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails for crimes committed against Israel. Finally, Hezbollah and some of the Muslim world consider Israel an illegitimate state. For these reasons, many in the Arab world consider acts performed by the organization against Israel to be justified as acts of Jihad. Although some Arab states have condemned Hezbollah's actions saying vaguely that they harm Arab interests, "[T]hroughout most of the Arab and Muslim worlds Hezbollah is regarded as a legitimate resistance movement" with an emphasis on "calls for the destruction of
Israel." Even 74 percent of Lebanese Christians viewed Hezbollah as a resistance organization.
In contrast, the United States, Israel and four other countries consider Hezbollah wholly or partly a terrorist organization. The
European Union does not list Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization", but does list
Imad Mugniyah, a senior member and founder of Hezbollah as a terrorist.. Additionally, the
European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on 10 March 2005, stating that there was clear evidence of terrorist activities by Hezbollah and urging the EU Council to brand Hezbollah a terrorist organization and EU governments to place the group on their terrorist blacklists, as the bloc did with the Palestinian Hamas group in 2003.
The Council, however, has been reluctant to do this because France, Spain, and Britain fear that such a move would further damage the prospects for Middle East peace talks.
Human rights organization
Amnesty has reported that Hezbollah committed
war crimes against civilians in Israel.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of militia with the Taif agreement at the end of the
Lebanese civil war. Hezbollah's maintence of an active militia after this time, and after the more recently conflict with Israel is controversial. Some consider it a violation of the resolution and agreement and others consider it a necessary and justified element of resistance. The position of the Lebanese government is not completely clear. The Italian newspaper
Corriere della Sera recently quoted Prime Minister Saniora was saying that, "Hezbollah has created, a 'state within a state,' adding: 'The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire.'. According to a Forbes article, Saniora later denied these remarks, saying he "told the paper that 'the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms,' .
Hezbollah denounced . The former prime minister of Lebanon,
Najib Mikati, stated that "in our terminology Hezbollah is not a militia, it is a resistance and we believe there is a difference between resistance and militia"
. Butros Harb, a Lebanese lawmaker, recently spoke against Hezbollah's failure to disarm saying, "We can't have an illegal army at the heart of our state, all weapons must be held by the Lebanese government," .
Flag
The red lettering at the top of the
flag of Hezbollah is a verse from the
Quran from which its name is derivated, reading "It is only the party of God who wins." The large green lettering is the name of the group — with the first letter of "Allah" reaching up to grasp a Soviet
AK-47. The red lettering at the bottom reads, "The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon."
Besides the AK-47, additional symbols on the flag include a globe, a book, a leaf, and a sword.
The flag nearly identically resembles the flag of the Iranian
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Ideology
Hezbollah declared its existence on February 16, 1985 in "The Hizballah Program". This document was read by spokesman Sheikh Ibrahim al-Amin at the al-Ouzai Mosque in west Beirut and simultaneously published in
al-Safir as "The Hizballah Program, an open letter to all the Oppressed in Lebanon and the World," and a separate pamphlet. Later, a slightly shortened version was published in the Jerusalem Quarterly. The document laid out the goals and ideology as follows:
- The solution to Lebanon's problems is the establishment of an Islamic republic as only this type of regime can secure justice and equality for all of Lebanon's citizens.
- The Hizbullah organization views as an important goal the fight against 'western imperialism' and its eradication from Lebanon. The group strives for complete American and French withdrawal from Lebanon, including all their institutions.
- The conflict with Israel is viewed as a central concern. This is not only limited to the IDF presence in Lebanon. Rather, the complete destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of Islamic rule over Jerusalem is an expressed goal.
Shi'a Islamism
Hezbollah's original 1985 manifesto reads:
We are the sons of the ummah - the party of God the vanguard of which was made victorious by God in Iran. There the vanguard succeeded to lay down the bases of a Muslim state which plays a central role in the world. We obey the orders of one leader, wise and just, that of our tutor and faqih who fulfills all the necessary conditions: Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini....We are an umma linked to the Muslims of the whole world by the solid doctrinal and religious connection of Islam, whose message God wanted to be fulfilled by the Seal of the Prophets, i.e., Muhammad. Our behavior is dictated to us by legal principles laid down by the light of an overall political conception defined by the leading jurist....As for our culture, it is based on the Holy Koran, the Sunna and the legal rulings of the faqih who is our source of imitation.
Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah
Khomeini's followers in the early eighties in order to spread
Islamic revolution. and follows a distinct version of
Islamic
Shi'a ideology developed by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution in
Iran. the elimination of the state of Israel has been Hezbollah's primary goal. Secretary-General Nasrallah’s has stated that "Israel is an illegal usurper entity, which is based on falsehood, massacres, and illusions," and considers that the elimination of Israel will bring peace in the middle east: "There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel." In an interview with the
Washington Post is the largest newspaper [i] in Washington, D.C. [i], the capital of the United States [i] ...
, Nasrallah said "I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel.' I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."
In a 1999 interview, Nasrallah outlined the group’s three "minimal demand[s]: an [Israeli] withdrawal from
South Lebanon and the Western Bqa’ Valley, a withdrawal from the
Golan, and the return of the Palestinian refugees.”
Israel's occupation of the
Shebaa Farms, along with the presence of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, is often used as a pretext and stated as justification for the organization's continued hostilities against Israel even after Israel's verified withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah's spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin, however, had this to said that
"the Hezbollah campaign to rid Shebaa of Israeli troops is a pretext for something larger. 'If they go from Shebaa, we will not stop fighting them," he told [the New Yorker]. 'Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine, ... The Jews who survive this war of liberation can go back to Germany or wherever they came from.' He added, however, that the Jews who lived in Palestine before 1948 will be 'allowed to live as a minority and they will be cared for by the Muslim majority.'"
In 2004, according to the BBC, Hezbollah, "said publicly that it is ready to open a second front against Israel in support of the intifada".
In recent interviews,
Nasrallah has answered questions concerning the establishment of a
Palestinian state established alongside an Israeli state stating "that he would not sabotage what is finally a 'Palestinian matter.' But until such a settlement is reached, he will, he said, continue to encourage Palestinian suicide bombers.". In the same interview, Nasrallah stated that "at the end of the road no one can go to war on behalf of the Palestinians, even if that one is not in agreement with what the Palestinians agreed on," adding, "Of course, it would bother us that
Jerusalem goes to
Israel ... [but] let it happen. I would not say O.K. I would say nothing."
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a Shiite scholar and assistant professor at the Lebanese American University, however, argues that Hezbollah is not
Anti-Zionist, but actually
Anti-Jewish. She quotes Hassan Nasrallah as saying, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli". Regarding the official public stance of the organization as a whole, she argues that while Hezbollah, "tries to mask its anti-Judaism for public-relations reasons..a study of its language, spoken and written, reveals an underlying truth." In her book,
Hezbollah: Politics & Religion, she dissects the anti-Jewish roots of Hezbollah ideology, arguing that Hezbollah "believes that Jews, by the nature of Judaism, possess fatal character flaws." Saad-Ghorayeb also argues that "Hezbollah's Koranic reading of Jewish history has led its leaders to believe that Jewish theology is evil."
In 2004 the Hezbollah-owned television station
Al-Manar was banned in
France on the grounds that it was inciting racial hatred. The court cited a 23 November broadcast in which a speaker accused
Israel of deliberately disseminating
AIDS in Arab nations. No other European country has followed France's lead.
Position on use of armed strength to achieve aims
Hezbollah's 1985 founding Manifesto reads:
No one can imagine the importance of our military potential as our military apparatus is not separate from our overall social fabric. Each of us is a fighting soldier. And when it becomes necessary to carry out the Holy War, each of us takes up his assignment in the fight in accordance with the injunctions of the Law, and that in the framework of the mission carried out under the tutelage of the Commanding Jurist. ...This is why whatever touches or strikes the Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines and elsewhere reverberates throughout the whole Muslim umma of which we are an integral part. .
According to Islamic law, all Muslims should defend Islamic lands and fight non-Muslims to withdrow them from these lands, which is called Defensive Jihad and there isn't any differences between Sunnis and Shiites in this case..
The Qur'an states, "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not do aggression, for Allah loves not the aggressors. Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors. And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. But if they desist, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers."
Women’s rights
In keeping with Lebanon’s generally secular and egalitarian culture, Hezbollah recognizes and promotes women’s rights somewhat more strongly than do other groups associated with Islamic jihad, or for that matter than does
Iran, Hezbollah’s self-proclaimed "model and example." Another version states that it was formed by supporters of Sheikh Ragheb Harb, a leader of the southern Shiite resistance killed by Israel in 1984. Regardless of when the name came into official use, a number of Shi’a groups were slowly assimilated into the organization, such as Islamic Jihad, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization. These designations are considered to be synonymous with Hezbollah by the US, Israel in the Lebanese government of July 2005.
Mohamed Fneish was appointed Energy and Water Minister in the cabinet and has been quoted as saying "We are a political force that took part in the polls under the banner of defending the resistance and protecting Lebanon and got among the highest level of popular backing ... Hezbollah’s resistance does not in any way contradict its political role. If joining the government and parliament is a national duty, then so is defending the country.”
Hezbollah's political success is regarded as a model for other Islamic parties in the
Middle East like
Hamas and United Iraqi Alliance; its actions are thought to provide strong clues as to how these other emerging Islamist forces might behave.
Military activities
Hezbollah has a military branch known as
Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya , and is the possible sponsor of a number of lesser-known militant organizations, some of which may be little more than fronts for Hezbollah itself. These organizations include the Organization of the Oppressed, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, the Organization of Right Against Wrong, and Followers of the Prophet Muhammad.
As Haaretz reports Hezbollah is not a small guerrilla organization. It is a trained, skilled, well-organized, highly motivated infantry that is equipped with the cream of the crop of modern weaponry from the arsenals of
Syria,
Iran,
Russia and
China, and which is very familiar with the territory on which it is fighting.
Hezbollah military is considered to be the most capable non-state armed group in the
Middle East. According to Jane's Information Group:
"Islamic Resistance guerrillas are reckoned to be amongst the most dedicated, motivated and highly trained of their kind. Any Hezbollah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC [the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps], either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran. The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IRGC members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres."
Hezbollah's strength was enhanced by the dispatching of one thousand to fifteen hundred members of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the financial backing of Iran. It became the main politico-military force among the Shi'a community in Lebanon and the main arm of what became known later as the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.
Intelligence capabilities
According to Israeli and American sources, Hezbollah has three units charged with intelligence operations.
One unit is responsible for intelligence activities against Israel, primarily by recruiting and running agents in order to gather information about Israeli military bases and other potential targets. It is claimed that this unit also gathers information on behalf of Iran, and is also known to conduct SIGINT operations against IDF communications.
According to Michael Eisenstadt, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hezbollah also has a unit called
Unit 1800 which aids
Palestinians engaged in their operations, by providing funding, direction, weapons, and bomb-building instructions.
Stance on what is a legitimate military target
Hezbollah has not been directly involved in a suicide bombing since 1999 and has publicly denounced some of these attacks. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hezbollah condemned Al Qaeda for targeting the civilian
World Trade Center, but remained silent on the attack on the
Pentagon, neither favoring nor opposing the act.
Hezbollah also denounced the Armed Islamic Group
massacres in
Algeria, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya attacks on tourists in
Egypt,
and the murder of
Nick Berg.
Nasrallah, in a 2006 interview with the
Washington Post, condemned violence against American civilians: “[I]f there are American tourists, or intellectuals, doctors, or professors who have nothing to do with this war, they are innocent, even though they are Americans, and it is forbidden. It is not acceptable to harm them.” making no distinction between killing soldiers or murdering women and children.
Journalist Paul Martin, writing in
The Washington Times, quoted
Hassan Nasrallah as saying, "I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide. Don't be shy about it." However the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that it was unable to find any record of the speech and suggested that it had been fabricated.
In addition, the organization's television station
Al-Manar airs programming designed to inspire suicide attacks in
Gaza, the
West Bank and
Iraq.
Media operations
Hezbollah operates a satellite television station from
Lebanon,
Al-Manar TV as well as a radio station,
al-Nour .
Kabdat Alla is the monthly magazine of Hezbollah's paramilitary wing.
Al Manar broadcasts news in Arabic, English, French and Hebrew and is widely watched both in Lebanon and in other Arab countries. Its transmission in
France is controversial. It has been accused of promoting religious and racial hatred , which is a criminal offense in France. On December 13, 2004, the French
Conseil d'État, acting on the request of the French TV authorities, issued an injunction to
Eutelsat to cease the broadcasting of Al Manar in France.
The Hezbollah Central Internet Bureau in 2003 released a titled
Special Force, intended to simulate Arab-Israeli conflicts from an Arab perspective.
Materials aimed at children are an aspect of Hezbollah's media operations.
Hezbollah attempts to maintain websites to run recruitment videos and post bank account numbers where supporters can donate funds. These websites are also considered "an inseparable part of the psychological war" and are tracked by other groups with a view to their closure.
Social services
Hezbollah also organizes extensive social development programs, running hospitals, news services, and educational facilities. Its Reconstruction Campaign is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure development projects in Lebanon.
In March of 2006 an IRIN news report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted:
"Hezbollah not only has armed and political wings - it also boasts an extensive social development programme. The group currently operates at least four hospitals, 12 clinics, 12 schools and two agricultural centres that provide farmers with technical assistance and training. It also has an environmental department and an extensive social assistance programme. Medical care is also cheaper than in most of the country's private hospitals and free for Hezbollah members.". Also Hezbollah's social service agencies provide health care and schooling for poor farmers.
According to CNN: "Hezbollah did everything that a government should do, from collecting the garbage to running hospitals and repairing schools."
In July 2006, during the war with Israel, when there was no running water in
Beirut, Hezbollah was arranging supplies around the city. "People here [in South Beirut] see Hezbollah as a political movement and a social service provider as much as it is a militia, in this traditionally poor and dispossessed Shiite community."
The
Washington Post reported that Hezbollah had set up a Martyr's Institute, which guarantees to provide for the living and education expenses for the families of fighters who die in battle.
Social services has a central role in the party's programs. In 1996’s “The Electoral Program of Hizbullah,” the organization declared its wish to improve the educational and health system.
Hezbollah claims to have increased its popularity through a non-sectarian approach: "We presented a new example, and this increased our popularity . . . We say that our mayors should serve the whole of the people in their towns, rather than serving just the party" said spokesman Abu Zeinab. The US estimates that Iran was giving Hezbollah about $60-$100 million per year in financial assistance but that assistance declined as other funding was secured, primarily from
South America.
Some estimates of Iran's aid are as high as $200-million annually.
Mohammed Raad, at one time leader of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, said money from Iran came only through private charities to be used for health care, education and the support of war widows. Hezbollah's main sources of income, he said, are the party's investment portfolios and wealthy Shiites.
Mahmoud Ali Suleiman, the Hezbollah operative captured in August 2006 by the IDF for his role in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, admitted during his interrogation that he received weapons-training and religious instruction in Iran. He told his interrogators that he rode in a civilian car to Damascus, from where he flew to Iran. Other than the Russian-made Katyusha, Hezbollah's reported artillery cache is entirely Iranian-made.
On August 4, 2006,
Jane's Defense Weekly, a defense industry magazine, reported that Hezbollah asked Iran for "a constant supply of weapons to support its operations against Israel" in the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. The report cited Western diplomatic sources as saying that Iranian authorities promised Hezbollah a steady supply of weapons `"for the next stage of the confrontation".
Iran long denied supplying Hezbollah with weapons, despite persistent reports to the contrary. However, "Mohtashami Pur, a one-time ambassador to Lebanon who currently holds the title of secretary-general of the 'Intifada conference,' told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles to the Shi'ite militia, adding that the organization has his country's blessing to use the weapons in defense of Lebanon". The Israel Defence Forces regard Hezbollah as virtually an arm of the Iranian armed forces; a senior Israeli defence official told
Jane's Defence Weekly is a weekly magazine [i] reporting on military [i] and corporate [i]...
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."
Similar claims and denials regarding supply of weapons have been made with respect to
Syria which may, in some cases, be extorted.
Money is also received from supporters abroad. Mohammed Hammoud was convicted in the United States for "violating a ban on material support of groups designated as terrorist organizations". The amount was USD 3,500, which Hammoud claimed was to "support Hezbollah's efforts to distribute books at schools and improve public water systems."
Foreign relations
Position of the UN
UN Security Council Resolution 1559, calls for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese
militia", echoing the Taif Agreement that ended the
Lebanese Civil War, but does not explicitly include Hezbollah although
Kofi Annan has advanced this interpretation. The Lebanese Government Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem has said that its forces might become a "reservist army" within the Lebanese army, though this suggestion is not universally supported within the organisation.
The UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, contests characterisations of the Lebanese militia as a terrorist organisation in the mould of
al-Qaeda.
While acknowledging that “Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics,” he says that it is unhelpful to call it a terrorist organization; the United States and the international community, in his view, would do well to respect it as a legitimate political party. Brown also criticized Hizbullah, "It is making no effort to hit military targets; it's just a broadside against civilian targets."
Non-Lebanese alliances
Iran
In a July 20, 2006 article, the widely respected Iran and Middle East scholar, Fred Halliday, wrote that Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of Hezbollah under Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, told him Hezbollah follows Iran's leadership as a matter of principle:
"On the matter of political relations with Iran, the sheikh was absolutely clear. Hizbollah regards the Iranian supreme leader, in this case Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as its ultimate authority; all major political decisions regarding Hizbollah are referred to – when not actually taken in – Iran. He gave the example of the decision taken in 1992 to enter Lebanese national politics: Hizbollah set up a commission, which prepared a report, with various options; this report was sent to Iran; it was Ayatollah Khamenei himself who took the final decision, in favour of participation."
Syria
It is widely believed that Hafez al-Assad, who was president of Syria from 1971 to 2000, and Hezbollah were closely linked; this did not significantly affect his relations with the rest of the world.
Bashar al-Assad, his son and successor, has been subjected to sanctions by the U.S. due to his continued support for Hezbollah, which it views as a terrorist organization.
In an interview on Al-Arabiya TV in Dubai, former Hezbollah Secretary-General Subhi Al-Tufeili said Hezbollah definitely fosters its relations with the Syrians, but Hezbollah's real leadership is 'the rule of the jurisprudence'.
Hamas and Palestinian national movement
According to CRS report for
U.S. Congress:
"Although Hezbollah and Hamas are not organizationally linked, Hezbollah provides military training as well as financial and moral support to the Palestinian group and has acted in some ways as a mentor or role model for Hamas, which has sought to emulate the Lebanese group’s political and media success. Hamas’s kidnaping of the Israeli soldier follows a different Hezbollah example. Moreover, two groups share the goal of driving Israel from occipied territories and ultimately eliminating it; both maintain close ties with Iran."
According to an Israeli military source, Hezbollah assists Hamas with bomb production: "They know how to make them more concentrated, what kind of screw to use, how to pack more explosives into less space."
Nasrallah has declared his support for the ongoing
al-Aqsa intifada.
Alleged relationships to non-Lebanese Islamist movements
al-Qaeda
There is no concrete evidence of Hezbollah contact or cooperation with al-Qaida. United States intelligence officials speculate there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda figures who fled
Afghanistan for Lebanon. One example of evidence of the alliance was in the public testimony "by Ali Mohamed, a former U.S. Green Beret who pleaded guilty to conspiring with bin Laden to bomb U.S. embassies in Africa. ... Hezbollah, he testified, provided explosives training to al Qaeda."Priest, Dana and Douglas Farah.
Washington Post is the largest newspaper [i] in Washington, D.C. [i], the capital of the United States [i] ...
. 30 June 2002. 18 September 2006. According to
Middle East Quarterly and the
Washington Post is the largest newspaper [i] in Washington, D.C. [i], the capital of the United States [i] ...
, "Al Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah." In a 2002 article, the
Washington Post claimed:
"The new cooperation ... includes coordination on explosives and tactics training, money laundering, weapons smuggling and acquiring forged documents, according to knowledgeable sources. This new alliance, even if informal, has greatly concerned U.S. officials in Washington and intelligence operatives abroad who believe the assets and organization of Hezbollah's formidable militant wing will enable a hobbled al Qaeda network to increase its ability to launch attacks against American targets."
Some American newspapers have suggested a broader alliance between Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
On the other hand, others point out that al-Qaeda’s Sunni Wahhabist ideology is fundamentally incompatible with Hezbollah’s relatively liberal brand of Shia Islam; in fact, some Wahhabi leaders consider Hezbollah to be
apostate. Al-Qaeda has demonstrated its distaste for Shi’as in suicide bombings and attacks on Shi’a civilian targets in Iraq. Hezbollah denies any ties to
al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has issued an audio recording in which he called Hezbollah an "enemy of Sunnis" and a "shield" for Israel, for protecting Israel by preventing Palestinian attacks from Lebanon. Saint Petersburg Times and ABC News and MSNBC report that there exists no evidence of a connection between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, the
Washington Post claimed:
"There is little dispute that al Qaeda and Hezbollah operatives work together, but some analysts reject the notion that the two groups have buried their differences, which have long been sharp because they derive their support from the two competing branches of Islam."
Nasrallah denies links to al-Qaeda, present or past, stating in a 2002 interview that the two organizations work in different areas and face different enemies. Hezbollah’s aim has been the "confrontation of the Zionist plan," said Nasrallah, while bin Laden has focused on Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Chechnya. "So we are talking about two different areas and battles facing two completely different enemies. This was the reason why there wasn’t any contact."
As part of a surge of intersectarian support for Lebanon’s Muslims during the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, called for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Zionists and join the fighting in Lebanon. But Mohammed Fneish, Lebanon’s Energy Minister, one of the two Hezbollah members in government, responded "Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah are two different groups. Al-Qaeda believes in killing innocents. Hezbollah is involved in a legitimate resistance [against Israel]."
al-Mahdi
Hezbollah claims that it forbids its fighters entry into Iraq for any reason, and that no Hezbollah units or individual fighters have entered Iraq to support any Iraqi faction fighting the United States. However, on April 2, 2004,
Muqtada al-Sadr announced his intention to form chapters of Hezbollah and Hamas in Iraq.
Other Islamist groups
There have been American claims that Hezbollah has engaged in joint operations with the Sunni Palestinian militant group
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement.
Outside views of Hezbollah
Governments disagree on Hezbollah’s status as a legitimate political entity, a terrorist organization, or both.
Throughout most of the
Arab and
Muslim worlds, Hezbollah is highly regarded as a legitimate resistance movement. The Lebanese government confirmed it as a legitimate resistance against occupation. Even 74 percent of Lebanese Christians viewed Hezbollah as a resistance organization.
The United States, Israel and four other countries consider Hezbollah wholly or partly a terrorist organization.
The
European Union does not list Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization" but does list
Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah's senior Intelligence officer and one of its founders as a terrorist, on its list of wanted terrorists.
In a non-binding resolution adopted by the
European Parliament on 10 March 2005, the MEPs urged the EU Council to brand Hezbollah a terrorist organization. However, the Council has so far been reluctant to do so, as France, Spain, and Britain fear that such a move would further damage the prospects for Middle East peace talks.
European legislators branded the radical Lebanese Hezbollah group a terrorist organization and urged EU governments to place the group on their terrorist blacklists, as the bloc did with the Palestinian Hamas group in 2003.
“
EU Parliament considers that clear evidence exists of terrorist activities by Hezbollah. The EU Council should take all necessary steps to curtail them," legislators said in a non-binding resolution adopted during a session in Strasburg, France.
In a 2004 article, Dennis Ross, the Middle East envoy under the first Bush and Clinton administrations, was cited as saying that Hezbollah's resistance to the Israeli occupation, unlike its past activities aimed at Western targets, is not terrorism and that the US included Hezbollah on its list of terrorist groups for Hezbollah's past activities, not for its ongoing resistance to Israel.
Public opinion
While al-Qaeda is known throughout the Arab world as a terrorist outfit, Hezbollah is just as widely seen as a legitimate resistance organization that has defended its land against the Israeli occupying force, and consistently stood up to the Israeli army.
According to a poll released by the "Beirut Center for Research and Information" on 26 July during
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hezbollah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hezbollah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hezbollah along with 80 percent of
Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis., while according to another poll, from July 2005, 74 percent of Christian Lebanese viewed Hezbollah as a resistance organization.
In a poll of Lebanese adults taken in 2004, 6% of respondents gave unqualified support to the statement "Hezbollah should be disarmed". 41% reported unqualified disagreement.
A poll of Palestinians taken in the Gaza Strip indicated that 79.6% had "a very good view" of Hezbollah.
Polls of Jordanian adults in December, 2005 and June, 2006, showed that 63.9% and 63.3%, respectively, considered Hezbollah to be a legitimate resistance organization. In the December, 2005, poll only 6% of Jordanian adults considered Hezbollah to be terrorist.
ABC News/
Washington Post Poll. Aug. 3-6, 2006. N=1,002 adults in the US. MoE ± 3 . 46% said Israel and Hezbollah are both responsible for the conflict in Lebanon, 39% said Hezbollah is most to blame, while only 7% said Israel is. 6% were unsure, and 1% felt otherwise. The same poll found that 58% blamed Hezbollah for the civilian casualties in Lebanon for locating its fighters and rocket launchers in civilian areas, while 21% blame Israel for bombing Hezbollah targets those areas. 10% said both, 9% were unsure, and 2% felt neither were to blame.
A worldwide poll conducted by Bill O'Reilly and sponsored by
MSNDirect.com in August 2006 found that of the over 50,000 voters , 96% say that Israel should not negotiate with Hezbollah or their demands. Only 4 percent said yes.
Designation as a terrorist organization
List of entities officially designating Hezbollah as "terrorist"| Entity | Type of Designation | Reference |
| The organization Hezbollah in full | |
| The organization Hezbollah in full | |
| The organization Hezbollah in full | |
| The Hezbollah External Security Organization | |
| The organization Hezbollah in full | |
| The Hezbollah External Security Organization | |
|
The
European Union does not list Hezbollah, or any group within it, a "terrorist" organization,
but the
European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing "clear evidence" of "terrorist activities by Hezbollah".
The EU Council designates
Imad Mugniyah as a terrorist, claiming he is Hezbollah's "Senior Intelligence Officer".
In the midst of the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Russia’s government declined to include Hezbollah in a newly-released list of terrorist organizations, saying that they only list organizations which represent "the greatest threat to the security of
[Russia]". This was a notable omission given Russia’s membership with the US, EU, and UN in the Middle East Quartet. Prior to the release of the list, Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov called "on Hezbollah to stop resorting to any terrorist methods including attacking neighboring states."
The Quartet’s fourth member, the United Nations, does not maintain such a list.
Non Governmental Organizations
On September 14, 2006,
Amnesty International released a report accusing Hezbollah of
war crimes during the 2006 conflict with
Israel.
See also
