This year, as tensions between the US and Iran mounted and President Donald Trump deployed what he described as an “armada” to the Middle East, threatening to strike Iran, concerns grew in Lebanon. For decades, Tehran invested billions of dollars in Hezbollah as part of an alliance of proxies in the Middle East it calls the “Axis of Resistance”. With Iran vowing to turn any attack into a regional conflict, the Lebanese government warned Hezbollah against getting involved. In turn, according to reports, the group reassured the authorities that it would not intervene. But, in the end, possibly under pressure from its patron, it did.
