EP116: Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group and political party, established in 1985. Hezbollah has a reputation as one of the Middle East’s great agitators, having engaged Israel in conflict twice, once in the 1980s and again in 2006. Their financing by and allegiance to the Iranian ayatollah, the West’s bogeyman in the region, underpins this image.

But simply viewing Hezbollah as a regional troublemaker conceals an intriguing domestic story which is far more nuanced; in the context of Lebanon’s sectarian strife, Hezbollah has consistently gone in to bat for the country’s Shia Muslim population. For decades seen as the nation’s underdog, patronised and belittled by Christians and Sunnis, Hezbollah has made it clear that Shia interests will no longer be dismissed out of hand.

My guest today is Heiko Wimmen. Heiko is head of the Iraq-Syria-Lebanon project at the International Crisis Group, an independent organisation working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world. Heiko, who is German by origin, has lived in the region, and mostly in Lebanon, since 1994, and has worked as a journalist, broadcast producer and researcher. As well as the group’s history, we discuss the precarious situation of 2024, when another war between Hezbollah and Israel appears possible.