Hezbollah’s regional expansion is increasingly at odds with Lebanon’s sovereign interests and its attempts to distance itself from the Iranian-Arab conflict. The country was shaken in the last few months by two major incidents: one linked to the Nov. 4 resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and another with the threats voiced on Dec. 8 by Iraqi militia leader Sheikh Qais al-Khazali against Israel on the southern border. Lebanon’s dilemma with Hezbollah’s growing military ambitions wields, interestingly, varied responses from Hezbollah’s support base.
Lebanon seems to have overcome, for now, a political crisis that shook the country last November, when Hariri announced his resignation as head of the government from the Saudi capital Riyadh. At the time, he issued a strong condemnation of Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group that is a member of the current 30-member national unity Cabinet.
