Updated February 1, 2021
Lebanese Hezbollah
Overview
Objectives
Hezbollah (“Party of God”) is an Iran-backed Lebanese
For nearly two decades, Hezbollah’s stated objective was to
Shi’a militia and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist
drive IDF forces from southern Lebanon, through a range of
Organization (FTO). Formed in 1982, in the wake of the
attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets. Since the
Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, the group has
Israeli withdrawal in May 2000, Hezbollah has used the
described itself as the leader of Islamic resistance to Israel
remaining Israeli presence in the Sheb’a Farms and other
and has conducted numerous attacks against Israeli and
disputed areas in the Lebanon-Syria-Israel tri-border region
Western targets. Hezbollah currently operates regionally as
to justify its ongoing conflict with Israel—and its
a militia force, while also playing a powerful role as a
persistence as an armed militia alongside the Lebanese
Lebanese political party and provider of social services.
Armed Forces (LAF). Hezbollah promotes Iranian interests
in the region, through efforts to ensure the survival of the
Figure 1. Lebanon
Asad government in Syria and counter the influence of
Iran’s regional rivals. Hezbollah also seeks to maintain its
domestic political influence and privileges—in particular its
significant store of advanced weaponry that remains outside
state control and its private telecommunications network.
Areas of Operation
Hezbollah is based in Lebanon and primarily operates in the
Middle East, though it has conducted attacks elsewhere.
Lebanon
According to U.S. government assessments, Hezbollah
controls access to parts of Lebanon and operates inside the
country with relative impunity. The group was implicated
in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bombing in downtown Beirut
that also killed 21 others. In 2011, the United Nations-
backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indicted four
Hezbollah members in connection with the Hariri
assassination and conducted trials in absentia. In 2020, the
STL found one Hezbollah member guilty and sentenced
him to five terms of life imprisonment; he remains at large.
Other anti-Syrian politicians, journalists, and security
personnel were killed in Lebanon in the years following the
Hariri assassination, including four members of parliament;

analysts assess that Hezbollah or Syria are likely culprits.
Source: Created by CRS. Boundaries from ESRI and U.S. State
Department.
Hezbollah vies for the loyalties of its constituents by

Leadership
operating a vast network of schools, clinics, youth
programs, private businesses, and local security networks.
Hassan Nasrallah has served as Secretary-General of
Hezbollah has participated in elections since 1992. The
Hezbollah since the assassination of his predecessor by the
group entered the Cabinet for the first time in 2005, and has
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 1992. The group’s
held one to three seats in each Lebanese government
leadership structure includes an advisory body known as the
formed since then. Hezbollah has at times sought to block
Shura Council, comprising the heads of the Executive,
cabinet decisions, twice prompting the collapse of the
Political, and Judiciary Councils, as well as two permanent
government by withdrawing from the cabinet alongside its
Iranian representatives. According to the U.S. government,
political allies. The group is part of the March 8 political
the External Security Organization (ESO), the military arm
coalition, which includes Lebanese President Michel Aoun
of Hezbollah responsible for the planning, coordination,
of the Free Patriotic Movement. Hezbollah did not gain any
and execution of terrorist attacks, is headed by Talal
additional seats in Lebanon’s May 2018 legislative
Hamiyah. The ESO is also known as the Islamic Jihad
elections (it continues to hold 13 out of 128), but parties
Organization (IJO) or Unit 910.
allied with the March 8 coalition increased their share of
seats.
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Lebanese Hezbollah
Syria
Over the years, Hezbollah has also been implicated in
Hezbollah has a longstanding relationship with the Asad
several attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets outside Israel,
government in Syria, which facilitates the transit of
including two attacks in Argentina in the early 1990s and a
weapons through its territory from Iran to Hezbollah. In
1994 car bombing at the Israeli Embassy in London. In
2013, Nasrallah acknowledged that Hezbollah fighters were
2020, a Bulgarian court convicted two men, whom
operating inside Syria and pledged that the group would
prosecutors linked to Hezbollah, of involvement in a 2012
“do everything in [its] power” to ensure the Asad
bus bombing that killed six, including five Israeli tourists.
government’s survival. The Asad government has relied on
Size and Financing
Hezbollah, as well as Iran, to fight opponents and secure
The U.S. government has not issued an unclassified
territory.
assessment of the total number of Hezbollah fighters across
Yemen
all areas of operation. The International Institute for
Hezbollah, along with Iran, also provides weapons and
Strategic Studies’ 2020 Military Balance states that
training to Houthi militants in Yemen, according to the
estimates of Hezbollah’s strength “suggest up to 20,000
State Department’s 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism,
active personnel with an additional [circa] 25,000 reserves.”
published in 2020. The Houthis have conducted persistent
In recent years, Iran provided an estimated $700 million in
ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks
annual funding to Hezbollah, but U.S. officials in 2020
against Saudi Arabia, Iran’s primary regional rival.
stated that U.S. sanctions on Iran had constrained Iran’s
Attacks Against U.S. Interests
ability to finance the group.
Starting in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has been linked to a
Hezbollah also operates a global criminal-financial
series of terrorist attacks against U.S. personnel and
network, with reported hubs in Europe, Africa, and Latin
facilities, including the truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy
America. A 2016 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
and Multinational Force barracks in Beirut in 1983, and the
investigation implicated Hezbollah in a multimillion-dollar
Embassy annex in 1984. Hezbollah also hijacked TWA
scheme involving the alleged transit of Latin American
Flight 847 and took roughly 100 foreign hostages between
cocaine to the United States and Europe and the laundering
1982 and 1992, including the CIA chief of station in Beirut,
of drug proceeds through exchanges in the Middle East and
who later died in their custody. U.S. officials have alleged
West Africa.
that Hezbollah leaders were active in arming and training
Shi’a militias that carried out attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq
Relationship with Iran
during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 – 2010).
Iranian support for Hezbollah, including providing
thousands of rockets and short-range missiles, helps Iran
In 2017, the Department of Justice announced that it had
acquire leverage against key regional adversaries such as
arrested two naturalized U.S. citizens on charges of
Israel and Saudi Arabia. It also facilitates Iran’s
providing material support to, and receiving military-type
intervention on behalf of the Asad regime in Syria. Israel
training from, Hezbollah; one has since been sentenced to
has stated that Iran may be supplying Hezbollah with
40 years in prison. The men allegedly surveilled potential
advanced weapons systems and technologies, and assisting
targets for attack in the United States and Panama. In 2019,
Hezbollah in creating an indigenous production capability
the Department of Justice announced the arrest of a third
for rockets, missiles, and drones that could threaten Israel
naturalized American citizen who also reportedly surveilled
from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or Yemen.
possible targets in the United States on behalf of Hezbollah.
Sanctions and Designations
Attacks on Israeli and Jewish Targets
Hezbollah, as an entity, is listed as a Specially Designated
Over the past two decades, Hezbollah has periodically fired
Terrorist (1995); a Foreign Terrorist Organization (1997);
rockets into northern Israel. Hezbollah rocket attacks
and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT, 2001).
reached a peak during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel War,
Numerous affiliated individuals and entities have also been
when, over the course of a 34-day period, the group
designated as SDGTs. Some countries and the European
launched more than 4,000 rockets into northern Israel,
Union separate Hezbollah’s military and political wings—
killing 55 Israelis. Hezbollah also conducted cross-border
designating the former for sanctions while maintaining
raids on Israeli villages and military installations. All told,
dialogue with the latter. U.S. officials have described this as
the 2006 conflict killed an estimated 163 Israelis and more
a “false distinction,” and one not made by Hezbollah itself.
than 1,000 Lebanese.
The United States uses secondary sanctions to target
The 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism estimates that
persons and entities that facilitate financial transactions for
Hezbollah may now possess up to 150,000 rockets. Israeli
Hezbollah, including via the Hizballah Financial Sanctions
assessments have highlighted Hezbollah efforts to produce
Regulations, which implement the Hizballah International
precision-guided missiles within Lebanon. Israel also has
Financing Prevention Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-102, known as
destroyed multiple Hezbollah tunnels into Israel. The U.N.
HIFPA), as amended by the Hizballah International
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the Lebanon-
Prevention Amendments Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-272,
Israel-Syria tri-border area, but U.S. officials assess that
sometimes referred to as HIFPA II).
Hezbollah’s presence in the Lebanese government has
prevented UNIFIL from fully investigating cross-border
Carla E. Humud, Analyst in Middle Eastern Affairs
incidents.
IF10703
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Lebanese Hezbollah


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https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10703 · VERSION 5 · UPDATED

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