Hezbollah sees war in Lebanon as a chance for political resurgence

Portraits of Shiite political leaders, including former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (killed in 2024), next to a poster paying tribute to a Hezbollah fighter, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on June 5, 2026. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH FOR LE MONDE Hezbollah has come out of the latest round of conflict between Iran and Israel strengthened. For the first time since the Lebanese Shiite party sparked the war against Israel, when it attacked in support of the Palestinian group Hamas in October 2023, and then again, when it backed Iran in March 2026, Tehran has come to its rescue. On the night of June 7, the Islamic Republic of Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at northern Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut. Iran's support came at a pivotal moment for Hezbollah. Tehran intervened to reestablish a dynamic in which it deters Israel from attacking Hezbollah, Iran's protégé, and thus reasserts its control over Lebanon's future. Iran's regime has demanded a cease-fire in Lebanon as part of the broader regional agreement it is negotiating with Washington, while the United States, Israel and the Lebanese government all want to keep the two issues separate. Hezbollah had been undermined within the Shiite community, the main victim of Israeli devastation, and faces the Lebanese state, which seeks to disarm it as part of a deal with Israel, but Tehran's intervention has now placed the Shiite party back at the center of both Lebanese and regional dynamics. "This war will have consequences for Hezbollah, on both the military and political levels," said Kassem Kassir, a political analyst with close ties to Hezbollah. You have 83.67% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.