Who Is Hezbollah And Why Is Lebanon Central To US-Iran-Israel Negotiations?

Ongoing clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon are now jeopardizing a fragile US-Iran agreement intended to halt their conflict.

Iran has made Lebanon’s security a central condition in any peace arrangement with the United States aimed at ending the war, signalling that stability in Lebanon remains closely tied to broader negotiations over regional de-escalation. Israel has conducted repeated offensives against Hezbollah. The largest occurred in 2006, after Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel, killed several soldiers, and kidnapped two others,  prompting a major Israeli air and ground campaign that continued for over a month.

Amid the current peace negotiations between the US and Iran, United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have signalled increasing frustration with Israel’s recent military actions in Lebanon and its opposition to the memorandum with Iran.

Vance suggested that Israel risked undermining support from its closest international partner, saying: “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

Who Is Hezbollah?

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and armed organization headquartered in Lebanon, widely regarded as “a state within a state”, Council on Foreign Relations stated.

Established amid the turmoil of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that happened between 1975–1990, the Iran-supported group is defined by its fierce hostility toward Israel and its rejection of Western involvement in the region.

The United States and numerous other nations officially classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It maintains strong military partnerships with Iran and Syria. Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified in recent years, especially following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023.

How Did The Group Become So Powerful and Why It Is Deeply Embedded In Lebanon?

Lebanon’s 15-year civil war ended with rival militias agreeing to disarm under a post-war settlement. Hezbollah stood apart from this process, retaining its military capabilities on the grounds that it was continuing resistance against Israeli forces, which at the time remained stationed in southern Lebanon.

The group gained broad domestic legitimacy after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Support for Hezbollah extended beyond its traditional Shia stronghold in the south and included sections of Lebanon’s Christian, Druze and Sunni Muslim communities. Its standing was further reinforced after its five-week conflict with Israel in 2006. In July 2006, Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid into Israel that killed several Israeli soldiers and captured two others, prompting a large-scale Israeli military response. The ensuing 34-day war left more than 1,125 people dead in Lebanon, the majority of them civilians, while Israel reported the deaths of 119 soldiers and 45 civilians.

Backed significantly by Iran and Syria, Hezbollah has since developed influence that extends well beyond that of a conventional political party, becoming one of the most powerful actors in Lebanon’s political landscape. 

Alongside its military role, Hezbollah has long maintained a formal presence within Lebanon’s state institutions. It has held cabinet positions, including the public works and labour portfolios, secured parliamentary representation, and entered governing coalitions with a range of political groups, including Christian parties, under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, The Guardian reported.

Today, Hezbollah exercises considerable influence across Lebanon’s Shia-majority regions, including parts of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley. Although rooted in Lebanon, the group’s founding manifesto states that its operations, particularly those directed against the United States, are not restricted to Lebanese territory.

As Iran’s most influential regional proxy, Hezbollah faced strong strategic pressure to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key ally of Tehran and a central pillar of the so-called “axis of resistance” aligned against Israel and the United States. 

In 2006, Hezbollah fought a five-week war with Israel after launching a cross-border operation that involved entering Israeli territory, killing several soldiers and capturing two others. The conflict escalated rapidly, with Hezbollah firing thousands of rockets into Israel over the course of the war.

In the years that followed, Hezbollah significantly expanded its military capabilities. According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, the group was estimated to possess up to 150,000 rockets and missiles in 2020 and was assessed to have around 45,000 fighters in 2022.

Hezbollah’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel in 2024, later claimed that the organisation’s strength had reached 100,000 fighters, underscoring both its military growth and its position as one of the region’s most heavily armed non-state actors.

Following the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah increasingly expanded its activities beyond Lebanon, emerging as a leading military force within the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” — a regional alliance of state and non-state actors opposed to Israeli and U.S. influence.

Its regional role became most visible in Syria, where Hezbollah deployed fighters to support then President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s civil war and helped bolster his government against rebel forces. The group also strengthened its involvement elsewhere in the region, assisting Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, backing Yemen’s Houthi movement, and cultivating closer operational and political ties with the Palestinian group Hamas.

These interventions reflected Hezbollah’s transformation from a Lebanese armed and political movement into a regional actor aligned closely with Iran’s broader strategic objectives.

Why Israel Faces A Different Kind Of War

After gaining independence in 1943, Lebanon established a sectarian power-sharing system intended to balance representation among its major religious communities, Maronite Christians, Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims. The system failed to resolve deeper sectarian tensions.

Those divisions eventually erupted into a civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990 and drew in regional powers, including Israel and Syria. More than 100,000 people were killed during the conflict. Syrian forces remained in Lebanon until 2005, withdrawing after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

A year later, Lebanon again became the centre of regional conflict.  

Regional tensions escalated again in October 2023 after Hamas launched its attack on Israel from Gaza and Israel responded with a military campaign. Hezbollah and Hamas have long shared a broader objective of armed resistance against Israel. Hezbollah voiced support for the attack and began launching artillery and rocket fire across Israel’s northern border in what it described as solidarity with Palestinians.

By February 2024, fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in southern Lebanon had intensified and displaced more than 90,000 people.  

What is happening now?

The latest round of fighting in Lebanon began on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on Israel, describing them as retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in the opening phase of the most recent conflict involving the United States and Israel.

Israel responded with an extensive military campaign and later launched a ground offensive into southern Lebanon. The fighting and bombardment have since killed more than 3,900 people in Lebanon.

According to Israeli figures, Hezbollah’s attacks have also resulted in the deaths of at least 32 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and three Israeli civilians, as per The Guardian.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would reserve the right to carry out strikes in Beirut if Hezbollah continued its attacks.

Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military issued fresh displacement orders for residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs, urging them to evacuate to “preserve their safety”. It reiterated that continued Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel would prompt attacks on Beirut’s Dahiyeh district.

Despite those warnings, Israeli operations in southern Lebanon continued. Israeli forces fired artillery near Nabatieh and struck the villages of Choukine and Kfar Tibnit, according to Al Jazeera.

Earlier this month, Lebanon’s embassy in Washington released a detailed statement saying Hezbollah had accepted a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks”.

“Under the proposed arrangement, Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from carrying out attacks against Israel, with the ceasefire framework to be expanded to encompass all Lebanese territories,” the statement said.

Prominent Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said the group supports a “full ceasefire on all Lebanese territory”.

In the latest development, Lebanon is set to begin a new round of talks with Israel in Washington on Tuesday, with Beirut determined to continue direct negotiations despite concerns that the process may be overshadowed by Iran’s decision to include Lebanon within its broader negotiations with the United States, Reuters reported.

Lebanese officials have argued that face-to-face talks with Israel remain the only viable path to ending the war that began on March 2, when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in support of Iran, triggering Israeli air strikes and a ground campaign that have killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon.

However, four rounds of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations since April have failed to secure a ceasefire. Instead, the most sustained pause in fighting came this week after Iran and the United States reached a memorandum of understanding that stipulated a halt in hostilities across multiple fronts, including Lebanon.