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Hezbollah: Most Powerful Political Movement in Lebanon

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Daniel L. Byman, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

May 29, 2008

Counterterrorism expert Daniel L. Byman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, describes Hezbollah as a "cogent mix of different facets of power" and calls it "the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon." Byman, a former CIA political analyst, estimates Iran gives Hezbollah in excess of $100 million in aid yearly, including anti-ship cruise missiles and rockets that can be used against Israel. And he says in the event of any peace agreement arising from Syria-Israel talks, Syria would be less capable of reigning in Hezbollah than it would have been in the past.

Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s with the active assistance of Iran. How would you describe Hezbollah today?

Hezbollah today is a very, very cogent mix of different facets of power. It's a very skilled terrorist group, it's a very formidable guerilla organization, it's the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon, and it's a large social provider. They all coexist. This is not schizophrenia. This is one big organization that is able to do multiple things quite effectively.

In this latest crisis they had in Lebanon where the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora tried to crack down on Hezbollah's internal communications system, it came to the point where people feared another civil war. What was Hezbollah's strategy?

Hezbollah has always tried to portray itself, especially in the last ten to fifteen years, as a Lebanese organization as well as a broader revolutionary kind of one. As a result they have always claimed that they've never taken up arms against fellow Lebanese. I would quibble with that, but nevertheless that's been a very strong propaganda theme.

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Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.