Hezbollah supporters wave party and Lebanese flags, as well as portraits of the current party leader, Naim Qassem, during a demonstration in support of Iran on June 20, 2025, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Credit: Anwar Amaro/AFP)
On Nov. 3, 2023, nearly a month after Hamas launched its al-Aqsa Flood operation against Israel, the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave his first speech outlining the limits of his group’s involvement in support of the Palestinian cause.
He stated that Hezbollah’s role was “to provide support and ease the pressure on the resistance in Gaza,” while assuring that the “rules of engagement” with Israel would remain unchanged.
In a second speech, a week later, he reiterated that Lebanon was merely a “front of pressure and support.” He also claimed to be taking into account “Lebanon’s reality and the national interest,” in the hope that his message would resonate strongly enough to spare both his fighters and his popular base.
Nasrallah even took a moment to extend a lifeline to Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, describing it as “subjected to a global war for 12 years,” and saying “we cannot ask for anything more.”
But the Israelis had other plans, and Nasrallah’s raised index finger, a familiar warning in his speeches, was powerless to stop them. Southern Lebanon lay in ruins, along with Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah’s senior leaders and fighters were assassinated one by one, Nasrallah included.
In a bitter twist of irony, Assad never fired a single shot yet ended up in exile after his regime fell. And Gaza? None of the so-called supporting fronts were able to save it.
Through it all, Iran did not lift a finger.
Iran, the self-proclaimed “guardian of the Palestinian and Arab cause,” seemingly saw no reason to act. So what if the “resistance” is thrown off balance and no “dear friend” survives the ruthless war machine of “Little Satan”, a reference to Israel?
A few drones that crashed harmlessly outside Israeli territory were considered enough to avenge the deaths of Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, a show of “strategic patience” and strict adherence to the “principle of non-intervention.”
But it seems current Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem still hasn’t learned the lesson.
“We are not neutral,” he said, referring to the war now pitting Iran directly against Israel without regional proxies in between. “We stand with Iran against this global injustice… and we will do what we deem appropriate.”
Just as Nasrallah dismissed international warnings, particularly from the U.S., about dragging Hezbollah into the conflict in support of Hamas, his successor seems just as intent on following the same path, even if it means all Lebanese could end up paying the price.
But there is a world of difference between Nasrallah and Qassem — in every sense.
Nasrallah commanded a militarily powerful militia, backed at least as he believed by hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles ready to launch. More importantly, his legitimacy rested on a popular base willing to die for him.
Qassem, meanwhile, presides over rubble, speaking to a population that is battered, exhausted and disillusioned.
His only ‘advantage’? This time, his Iranian sponsor might well give him the green light to use whatever operational ballistic missiles are still on Lebanese soil. And with good reason: Ali Khamenei’s regime is now fighting for its survival, so anything goes.
If only someone could remind Qassem that, in the end, Tehran will return to the negotiating table, where he and his party will be nothing more than a bargaining chip.
If only someone could tell him that this so-called “support front” won’t save Iran, but it will surely destroy Lebanon.
That if there is one thing to learn from the Iranians, it is how to put your own country’s interests first, how to “support” without pulling the trigger.
That positive neutrality is more vital now than ever, and that standing firmly behind the Lebanese state is our only lifeline.
That the masks have all fallen, and the time has come to be, above all else, Lebanese.
If only someone could tell Qassem that after such a reckless gamble, even Nasrallah would be turning in his grave.
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour. It was translated by Sahar Ghoussoub.
