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Hizbullah's Strategy Now Lies in Ruins alongside Its Leader Nasrallah
(The National-UAE) Michael Young - Hizbullah's ceasefire agreement with Israel in November was no less than a surrender, and claims by the party's new secretary general, Naim Qassem, that Hizbullah won the war sound absurd. It is increasingly apparent that Hizbullah will have great difficulty continuing to justify retaining its weapons. The mood in the country is largely hostile towards Hizbullah. Moreover, since the fall of its ally the Assad government in Syria, Hizbullah would have no way of resupplying itself. A major problem for Hizbullah is that Iran today is nowhere to be seen in Lebanon. The Iranian economy is in such crisis that it cannot spare money to help rebuild destroyed Lebanese Shiite areas. The contract between Iran and its Hizbullah allies has been seriously undermined, amid a perception among many in the Shiite community that they were used by Tehran as cannon fodder, for no advantage to themselves. The writer is a senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.