By Nohad Topalian | 2023-12-29

BEIRUT -- Iran, which lacks the necessary conventional military power to fight a direct war against Israel, is using Hizbullah and some Palestinian factions to fight against Israel on its behalf, analysts told Al-Fassel.

In particular, it has used Hizbullah as an intermediary to create and cultivate new and old Palestinian proxies -- including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) -- from Lebanon.

Hizbullah, Hamas and PIJ are US designated terrorist organizations.

Given the large Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon, geographic proximity to both Israel and Syria (where Iran-backed militias have been fighting in support of the Syrian regime), and Hizbullah's loyalty to the "axis of resistance", the militia is seen by Iran as a strong agent of influence.

The so-called "axis of resistance" is an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance backed by Iran, which also includes Hamas and Hizbullah.

It is an Iranian tool that serves Tehran's interests, said Southerners for Freedom coordinator and Shia opposition figure Hussein Ataya.

"Hizbullah plays the role of a 'maestro' who manages Palestinian groups, such as Hamas, although they still retain some form of independence," he told Al-Fassel.

Recent missile attacks launched by Hamas's armed wing Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and PIJ across Lebanon's southern border against Israel are directly coordinated with Hizbullah, analysts said.

Tensions have run high at the border between the two countries since Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack against Israel.

Proxies do Iran's bidding

"Iranian leaders realize that their country is incapable of going into direct military confrontation [with Israel]," said director of the Lebanese Center for Research and Consulting Hassan Qutb.

Therefore, they have been keen on boosting Iran's Arab and regional presence by spreading the Islamic Republic's doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardian of the Jurist), which calls for allegiance to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.

The aim is to mobilize the Shia minorities in a number of countries, Qutb said.

"Their goal has been to help stabilize their regime and cause armed strife and popular chaos [in conflict areas] through affiliated armed factions and militias in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon," he told Al-Fassel.

"These armed groups are fighting a proxy war for Iran, whether through the actions of the Popular Mobilization Forces against the US [military] in Iraq, or the Houthis' attacks on Bab al-Mandeb strait from Yemen," he said.

"They're also doing that through Hizbullah, which engages in limited, controlled armed confrontations with the Israeli army across Lebanon's southern border to alleviate pressures on the Gaza front," he explained.

The importance of these militias for Iran lies in "their ability to strike Israel without Iran bearing responsibility for their actions because they aren't regimes that can be pressured."

"Iran knows how important [the Palestinian cause] is for Arabs and Muslims, and that's why it has named its armed groups 'the Islamic resistance,'" he said.

Iran is using that slogan "to win the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims and cover up its crimes in Syria, Iraq and Yemen against the Muslim sects that don't believe in the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih," he continued.

Although relations between Iran and Hamas and PIJ became lukewarm after the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011, with each party supporting a different side, the relationship has strengthened again with the latest Gaza conflict.

Hizbullah: an agent of influence

"The war in Gaza has enabled Iran to play a renewed role through Hizbullah to recreate strong and coordinated relations with the Palestinian factions, especially Hamas, despite the ideological differences between the two," Qutb said.

"Hizbullah was put in charge of re-formulating relations with the Palestinians, as well as Arab and Muslim communities, because its base is Arab and the Lebanese militia is capable of dealing with those communities in a manner that would serve Iran and its renewed infiltration in the region," he said.

According to Qutb, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah's 2021 call, at Iran's behest, for "unity of fronts" was aimed at serving Iran's stability and boosting its regional and international role and presence.

The "unity of fronts" refers to mobilizing several battlefields at the same time against Israel. Such fronts include Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria's Golan, Iraq and Yemen.

"Iran largely relies on Hizbullah's role in leading and forming a military-political alliance in Lebanon with all sects, in addition to Palestinian and Syrian refugee communities," said Hesham al-Debsi, Fatah's former media chief and the director of the Tatweer Center for Strategic Studies and Human Development.

"Without Hizbullah's special role, Iran can't build its influence in Lebanon," he said.

According to al-Debsi, relations between Hizbullah and Hamas had strengthened in the period preceding Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

Relations with the PIJ had originally been strong, he said. "After that, the 'unity of fronts' strategy was announced."

The "axis of resistance" in Lebanon contributed various forms of military assistance to the ongoing fighting in Gaza, al-Debsi said.

This was followed with the recent announcement of the formation of a new group called Talae Toofan al-Aqsa (Vanguards of al-Aqsa Flood) to mobilize young supporters, he said.

However, this step was met with objections from some political forces in Lebanon that opposed using Lebanese soil in any armed operations against Israel.

"Hamas's political and military wings have been present in Lebanese camps since the group's establishment, but the new thing is that Hamas, thanks to its alliance with Hizbullah, has been able for the first time in its history to carry out military activities against Israel from Lebanon," he added.

These activities violate agreements between the Palestinian and Lebanese authorities, al-Debsi said.

"Under these agreements, Palestinian weapons in Lebanon must be subject to the Lebanese state's sovereignty and laws and must be governed by the dictates of Lebanon's national security," he said.

"Hamas's latest moves and limited military activities from southern Lebanon... have no cover except the political-security cover from Hizbullah," he said. "Without it, no Palestinian can act on their own."