Iran races to allay Hizbollah fears

Financial Times-Sept26th2024

Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran, Raya Jalabi in Beirut and Andrew England in London

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Iran has raced to reassure Hizbollah of its commitment to the militant group after unease within its ranks over Tehran’s restraint in the face of increasingly aggressive Israeli operations in Lebanon. Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s reformist president who took office in July, has said his country wants to usher in a “new era” of foreign policy and re-engage with the west to ease sanctions on the Islamic republic and repair the economy. Iran believes avoiding direct conflict with Israel is crucial to this goal, despite what Pezeshkian has described as Israeli “traps” to lure Tehran into war. But Israel’s decision to ramp up its offensive against Hizbollah, Iran’s most important regional proxy, has become the biggest test so far of whether the regime can follow through on this new tactic. Tehran has had to dispatch envoys to Beirut to scotch fears that it had deserted Hizbollah, according to people familiar with the matter, following a series of devastating blows including Israel’s most deadly air raids in Lebanon for decades. One senior regime insider told the Financial Times that Tehran has been working to “allay their concerns”, emphasising that Iran’s decision not to intervene to support Hizbollah served specific short-term purposes. “What we are witnessing is a shift in tactics rather than a change in our core strategy towards the axis of resistance,” said the insider, who is close to reformers. “Inevitably, some important issues are being set aside for more urgent ones, at least temporarily. This is the price you pay when you adjust your approach in battle.”

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Israel’s military chief on Wednesday told troops to prepare for a potential ground offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon, following thousands of strikes on militant group targets and several assassinations of its leaders. Some in Hizbollah’s support base and beyond have felt a stinging sense of abandonment by Iran, which has long cast a protective shadow over the group and Lebanon’s Shia Muslims. “Why aren’t the Iranians doing more to help us? We’re brothers, when they need us, but where are they when we need them?” said Mahmoud, a Hizbollah supporter in Beirut. After Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday that Tehran was ready to negotiate with the west over its nuclear programme, independent Lebanese MP Mark Daou posted on X that “they negotiate over our corpses.”

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