Hezbollah supporters wave photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut to celebrate the cease-fire between Israel and Iran on June 25, 2025. (Credit: Haitham Moussa/AFP)
Hezbollah reportedly did not participate in the latest Iran-Israel war at Tehran's request, according to statements made by a senior U.S. official to the Emirati media The National.
Considerable attention was given to the various groups within Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' during the 12-day war amid questions of their potential involvement on their sponsor's behalf. The Israeli army even halved the number of troops it had operating in Gaza in order to secure its borders with Lebanon, Syria and Jordan out of concern for attacks launched from pro-Iran groups in those countries.
The American official who spoke to The National said that Iran has specifically asked Hezbollah not to go to war so as to preserve "what remains of its strength," and that this decision was the result of both internal and external pressures.
"The resistance force, I will call it that, is now under pressure to preserve itself," he said on condition of anonymity. "Nothing would prevent Israel from carrying out a much larger attack if Hezbollah were involved at this stage."
Hezbollah made it clear immediately after Israel's large-scale attack against Iran on June 13, that it would not be involved in the war that was sure to follow. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem later clarified that his party would act as it deemed "appropriate" in support of Tehran.
Qassem confirmed that Lebanese authorities had exerted pressure, through the army, for Hezbollah not to open a front, as it had done in support of Hamas in Gaza in October 2023. President Joseph Aoun insisted last week, as fighting still raged between the two regional military giants, that there would be no war in Lebanon. "Who can bear a new war and what would be the cost of this war?" he posed.
Amal Movement leader and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah, also doubled down on his insistence that Hezbollah would not be getting involved in the war, saying he was "200 percent sure" there would be no war in the country.
Hezbollah emerged very weakened from the war it fought for over a year against Israel, following the opening of the support front in southern Lebanon, which Israel then escalated into an all-out war in September 2024. Israel's widespread and intense bombing campaign against Lebanon included, in its first couple days, the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
By the time the cease-fire was reached in November 2024, Hezbollah had lost much of its military might and most of its top military brass.
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