Hezbollah currently has the advantage over its enemies in Lebanon. Its power and rule – direct and indirect – over events in the country are undisputed
From Baabda to al-Qusayr: Hezbollah’s Victory March
On October 31, 2016, following a prolonged crisis that paralyzed Lebanon’s political system for two and a half years, General Michel Aoun was elected president. Aoun entered the presidential palace in Baabda after an agreement was reached that constituted a victory for Hezbollah and the March 8 Alliance over its opponents in the March 14 Alliance, led by Saad Hariri, head of the Future Movement. Two weeks later, on November 13, 2016, Hezbollah held a military demonstration at al-Qusayr in Syria, not far from the border with Lebanon. The timing and place were no accident. Al-Qusayr, located on the road halfway between Homs in Syria and Tripoli in Lebanon, is a symbol of the organization’s military success in Syria following its important victory there in 2013 – a victory marking Hezbollah’s publicly acknowledged intervention in the fighting on the side of the Assad regime and its position as a “defender of Lebanon” controlling an external envelope along the border with Syria. The demonstration was held on the organization’s “Shahid Day,” one week before Lebanon’s Independence Day. With the end of the political crisis and the events in Syria, Hezbollah’s demonstration of power– intentionally or not – sent a dual message: to Lebanon, and to regional and international actors.
