Hezbollah: The State within a State

Current Trends
Volume 8
Thursday, May 21, 2009

According to the most commonly accepted version of its history, Hezbollah is a resistance movement. Yet that description fails to capture the true nature of this militant group. Hezbollah, in fact, wears three hats today. First, in its own words, it is a resistance movement. Second, it is also an Islamist political movement that engages in rounds of political bickering with rival non-Shiite parties within Lebanon. And third, it is a revolutionary movement formed around a special Shiite school of thought that seeks to establish an Islamic state based on the radical ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Wilayat al-Faqih or “rule of the jurist.”
Since its inception in 1982, Hezbollah has undergone several changes, metamorphosing from an Islamic resistance movement to a “state within a state” in Lebanon, committed to “liberation.” After the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, the now-irrelevant resistance movement struggled to maintain its self-identity and ideological agenda. It did so by launching random attacks within a disputed sliver of land along the Lebanese-Israeli border, as well as by abducting Israeli soldiers for prisoner swap deals. But after the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, Hezbollah lost a vital political sponsor and was forced to deal with domestic politics in order to maintain both its regional agenda and its autonomy within Lebanon. Most important of all, Hezbollah still struggles to spread and impose an Islamic state based on the theory of Wilayat al-Faqih (or vilayat-e-faqih in Persian).

The Revolution within Shiism
In the summer of 1982, dozens of Persian-speaking, bearded men wearing khaki uniforms, many of them mounted on motorbikes, could be seen roaming the streets and unpaved roadways in the foothills of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon. Those men were members of the Iranian Revolution Guards, commonly known as the Pasdaran, and they had come to spread the Iranian revolution in Lebanon. Baalbek, a predominantly Shiite town surrounded by dozens of Shiite villages, proved to be a fertile ground for such an undertaking.
The original idea behind Iran’s involvement in Baalbek was to create a Shiite movement that could emulate the Iranian revolution of 1979. This movement would struggle to replace the political order in Lebanon with an Islamic republic.
As had been done in Iran three years earlier, activists organized massive rallies in Baalbek to protest what they decried as the injustices of the Lebanese state. But in actuality, the “state” in war-torn Lebanon was, in those days, virtually nonexistent. This made the Pasdaran’s project of fomenting a revolution in Baalbek a relatively easy task. The Pasdaran’s Lebanese followers quickly seized the Lebanese Armed Forces’ largest barracks in the country, which were located at the top of Baalbek’s Sheikh Abdullah Hill. The revolutionaries also occupied the state-owned Teachers’ House, situated in the upscale neighborhood of Rass al-Ein, and transformed it into the Imam Khomeini Hospital. They then invaded one of Baalbek’s three hotels, al-Khawwam, also situated in Rass al-Ein, and turned it into their headquarters.
Since revolutions usually require propaganda machines and armies, the Pasdaran supervised the establishment of a radio station, calling it the “Voice of the Downtrodden.” It also started training young men and organizing them in paramilitary groups.

Read the full paper, Hezbollah: The State within a State, here

Washington is from Mars, Damascus is from Venus

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, NOW Contributor


Jeffrey Feltman, acting Assistant US Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, (L) meets with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem (R) in Damascus on May 7. (AFP/Louai Beshara)

There are no areas of common interest between Washington and Damascus, and American-Syrian engagement is destined to go nowhere, no matter how many meetings Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and the National Security Council’s Daniel Shapiro hold in Damascus.
Toppling the Syrian regime through military intervention or forcing a change in its behavior through international isolation is no longer an option. Instead, Washington has decided to use engagement – a means, not an end – to reach a compromise between the two nations.
So far, the United States and Syria seem to be on different pages, and no rapprochement seems to be in the offing. The ongoing disagreement between the world’s biggest superpower and the region’s poorest country in terms of resources has made Damascus commit further errors in dealing with President Barak Obama and his new administration. At the top of the list is a resumption of the flow of suicide bombers, Syrian and otherwise, into Iraq. The days of bargaining over Iraq are over, and Syria should have realized that other Middle East nations, including Iran, are now behaving. The Iraq bombings have hardly cast Damascus as a potential partner.

Washington is from Mars, Damascus is from Venus

Syrian Amb Imad Mustafa at MEI: No Resistance after Peace with Israel

WASHINGTON - MENW: Highlights.

Mustafa: The United States has vindicated itself by electing Barak Obama because of who he is and what he symbolizes. We do understand relations between the United States and Syria are very difficult, like always, but add Bush and you understand why. The difference is dramatic between the administrations of Obama and Bush. The Obama administration said to us, even when you disagree with a country, you have to treat it with respect.
Now instead of pointing fingers at us and telling us what we should to do, such as kicking Khaled Meshaal, they are saying we are here to look at things in common.
Now they are approaching the problem in a very serious way. They are saying we want to make peace, adding it is not a peace process anymore. I look at them and see them serious and I am impressed. But the current Israeli government says implicitly we are not interested in peace.
For Senator George Mitchel, there is a difference between making peace in Ireland and making peace in the Middle East because of a lobby pressuring leaders in Washington. I meet congressional leaders who would tell me, and I am a foreign ambassador, that they cannot say anything in public of what they tell me in private because of fear that AIPAC would lash against them. There is no difference between left and right in Israel.
We don't disagree with this administration on Iraq anymore. We want to see a withdrawal from Iraq with a timetable. Resistance in Iraq is part of human nature. Occupation is the mother of all evil. We have 2.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. We can work together to make Iraq more stable and prosperous. There is room for fruitful engagement on Iraq.
On the lecturing issue, (this administration is) not lecturing us anymore and we are not either. In the past State Department officials would invite me for a meeting and give me a list of what Syria should do. I would tell them about their support of the terrible Israeli occupation, and the meeting ends. It was monologue under Bush. Now it is dialogue.
Can u imagine Senator Mitchel achieving peace while leaving out of the process the most important player, Hamas? Of course not.
Right now we're not trying to score points against each other. I was told by high ranking administration officials that Mitchel will visit Syria soon, once his Syrian team is hired, and I happen to know some names that I will not disclose now. (These officials) say it will be the Syrian/Lebanese peace track with Israel.
We are not discussing with them whether they want to send a US ambassador back to Damascus or not.
Q & A
[Mimi Burg: Why the whole world believes Syria stands behind the killing of Hariri?]
On Hariri, this is a conceptual question. There is an investigation working hard to unveil the truth. As far as we are concerned, Syria has cooperated with investigation. It fits Syrian national interests to unveil the truth.
[Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Chatham House: You said occupation is the mother of all evil, and that you want to see American troops out of Iraq within a year. But Iraq has an elected government that does not believe American presence is an occupation, just like a consenting Lebanese government did not call thirty years of presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon occupation. Why do you call the American presence in Iraq an occupation, and not that in Lebanon, and why do you see a difference between the two cases?]
The two are not comparable. We went into Lebanon to stop a situation similar to the one in Iraq, with the support of the United States and the Arab league. We were asked by the Lebanese. Syrian troops then left Lebanon in an orderly manner the day half of the Lebanese demonstrated and protested our presence. We withdrew. Half of the Lebanese demonstrated to say Syrian out, and half demonstrated to say Syria in.
While in Lebanon, we never imposed our political system or annexed an inch of land while in Gaza the occupation is subjecting the population to Massacres…
[Abdul-Hussain: I asked about American presence in Iraq not the Israelis]
Yes, in Iraq, we have 2.5 million refugees in Syria and the situation is miserable.
[Mohamed: Do you coordinate with other Arab ambassadors here for the Arab peace initiative?]
The Arab peace initiative was always shunned and ignored by the US. The initiative was approved during the Jenin massacre… Do we liaise with Arabs in Washington, yes and no. We have a monthly meeting.
[Jim Lobe: Arms smuggling through Syria to Hezbollah and Hamas…]
Syria does not allow any passage of arms through its territory to anyone. Only AIPAC and the Washington Institute say that… And as Syrians and Arabs, we are proud of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah…
When we have peace with Israel, there will be no resistance movements against Israel.
Will making peace with Israel affect Syrian relations with Iran? We don't think so. We have friendly ties, we are telling Obama officials you must talk to Iran. They are not saying no, but there is a long history between (Iran and the US) that cannot be easily overcome. We offer to play a role between the US and Iran, if the US wants any goodwill role from Syria, we will be glad to offer it.
Iran knows we hold peace talks with Israel. We still believe conflict should end in peace. Iran has told us they understand Syrian legitimate rights to liberate our beloved land in the Golan Heights and the return of 450 thousand Syrian refugees to their land.
[Marc Lynch: Your stance on the PLO and the coming Lebanese parliamentary elections…]
Fatah and Hamas need to put their act together and transcend differences. Forget the past.
On Lebanese elections, Syria fully supports peaceful and successful elections. As far as we are concerned, we know the US has its allies in Lebanon and we have our allies. What we are telling our allies is that if you win elections; do not exclude the other side. Regardless of the results, make it a participatory government. This is the only advice we give on Lebanon, and I hope they (Americans and their allies) heed our advice.
I think they won't, telling by their statements. It serves our national interests when Lebanon is stable prosperous. It is in our interest that all our neighbors Lebanon and Iraq are prosperous. Look at how beneficial Turkey is to Syria.
[Tamam Barazi, Alwatan Alarabi Magazine: You talked about refugees because of Israeli occupation, who about the one million Syrian refugees around the world because of your oppressive regime. How about your massacre of 15,000 people in Hama? These are the numbers publically given by Human Rights activists Haytham Al-Maleh, who lives in Syria and whom you imprisoned for nine years. When will your oppression end?] [Note: Questions were taken in batches of three, and Mustafa never looked at Barazi and ignored to answer his question, but when he finished answers to other questions, he answered vaguely].
These are wrong perceptions given by AIPAC and the Washington Institute. Anyway, we are saying let’s forget the past. There are many massacres like the Tisi Aqmar in Egypt and many other. What we are saying is that let’s look to the future.
[Tamam Barzai: But Haytham Al-Maleh is Syrian and lives in Syria. Don’t tell he is AIPAC. You are oppressing your own people]