August 09, 2025
How to Keep Hezbollah Away from Power
The article was originally published in The National Interest.
While Lebanese president Joseph Aoun’s election in January 2025 dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, the most significant source of the group’s popularity and legitimacy has been left unchecked. Hezbollah’s military wing frequently makes headlines, but the foundation of its support among ordinary Lebanese people is its social services wing. Multiple organizations, including the Jihad al-Binaa Development Group, Islamic Health Organization, and the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, provide a range of public services such as basic infrastructure, education, healthcare, and paramilitary training for teenagers.
Hezbollah’s ability to supply public goods and social welfare to Lebanon’s poor and rural communities continues to pay off at the polls today, despite the results of the recent presidential election. In the May 2025 municipal elections, the Hezbollah-Amal joint ballot won most of its traditional strongholds in Beirut and southern Lebanon, winning 109 of 272 municipalities in the Nabatiyeh and South Governorates in addition to other contested seats. Ahead of next year’s 2026 legislative elections, Aoun’s government must regain control of the country’s social services if it wants to continue drawing support away from Hezbollah.
The Middle East is entering a new era; Iran is weaker than it has ever been, the Assad regime is no more, and Lebanon is under new leadership with the potential to create lasting change.
Moreover, instead of waiting for the perfect conditions to provide aid, finance reconstruction efforts, and fund programs that will allow the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to degrade Hezbollah in the long term, Washington and its Gulf partners should instead take proactive steps to build on existing momentum and partner with Beirut to support Aoun’s efforts to reassert Lebanese sovereignty.
Much of the country’s ongoing economic instability—and Beirut’s corresponding inability to fund social service initiatives—stems from the endemic corruption prevalent throughout the Lebanese government. For example, Riad Salameh, the former governor of Lebanon’s central bank, was charged in 2024 with embezzlement after allegedly smuggling $330 million in state funds out of the country and investing it in European real estate.
Read the full article in The National Interest.
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