Hezbollah: Pushed back in the South, still active across Lebanon

Lebanese security forces arrested five Hezbollah members on Tuesday in a mountainous, mainly Christian area of North Lebanon. The case highlights the danger the Iran-backed militia still poses to Lebanon’s fragile stability.

An Internal Security Forces (ISF) patrol detained the men in an area between Batroun, Bsharri and Koura, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday. ISF intelligence is investigating, under the supervision of Public Prosecutor Ahmad Rami Hajj.

According to local media, the men tore up documents they were carrying as they were arrested, raising questions about what they were doing in a region far from Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.

A state within a state

The arrests are the latest in a series of security incidents involving the group. Backed, financed and armed by Iran, Hezbollah has for decades operated as a state within the state, with its own army, intelligence network and foreign policy, beyond the control of Lebanon’s government.

Israeli military operations have pushed the militia back from parts of southern Lebanon. But the group remains active elsewhere in the country, and Lebanese security services are keeping a close watch on its movements.

Hezbollah’s arsenal and its ties to Tehran make it a destabilizing force far beyond Lebanon’s borders. The group has dragged the country into repeated wars with Israel, and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries. Its presence in Christian areas could also inflame sectarian tensions in a country still scarred by civil war.

As long as Hezbollah keeps its weapons, Lebanon’s sovereignty, and the region’s stability, will remain at risk.