Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah

From AICbackground

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah

Leader of Hezbollah

Quotes:

“No army in the world is capable of making us drop our weapons as long as there are people who believe in this resistance.”

"We will stay in the streets, but our doors are open. We will not leave the streets until our goal is achieved, our goal to save Lebanon."

“We will not lift our weapons in the face of anyone. We don't need weapons to defeat you—our weapons are only for the Israelis. We will defeat you with our voices."

"There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel."

"I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel.' I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."

Background

You were born on August 31, 1960 in East Beirut, the oldest of nine children. Your family wasn’t very religious but you became interested in religious studies and attended Al Najah school and later public school in Sin el-Feel, Beirut.

In 1975, the civil war in Lebanon forced your family to move to their ancestral home in Bassouriyeh, Lebanon. You stopped your secondary education at this time and joined the Amal Movement, a political group representing Lebanon’s neglected Shiites. You then moved studied Shiite theology for three years in Iraq before returning to Lebanon in 1978, where you studied under Amal’s leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi. A few years later, Amal elected you as its political delegate in Bikaa, making you a member of the central political offices. In 1982, despite your commitment to Hezbollah, you were determined to resume your religious education to become a religious jurisprudent. In 1989, you moved to the sacred Iranian city of Qum to continue your studies.

You are married to Fatima Yassin and live in South Beirut with your four remaining children; your eldest son was killed by Israeli forces in Southern Lebanon in September 1997.

Public Life:

A few years after returning to Lebanon, Amal elected you as its political delegate in Bikaa, making you a member of the central political office. After the 1982 Israeli invasion, you joined Hezbollah and dedicated yourself to the liberation of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In February 1992, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Musawi was ambushed and killed by the Israelis. Although Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem was next in the line of succession, you were appointed Musawi’s successor at the insistence of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Under your leadership, Hezbollah’s resistance was one of the main factors that led to the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000, ending 22 years of occupation. While you cannot claim full credit for Hezbollah's performance on the battlefield, you were largely responsible for its sophisticated use of psychological warfare. Although the Israeli pullout earned you acclaim throughout the Arab world, your most enduring accomplishment of the 1990s was the transformation of Hezbollah from a secretive revolutionary group despised by most non-Shiites into a major social and political force in southern Lebanon. During this time, Hezbollah poured enormous sums of money into building and consolidating an extensive social welfare network in Shiite regions, including schools, clinics, and subsidized housing in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Owing to the fact that you have thus provided services to the Shiite community which the Lebanese government has not, you command the primary political allegiance of almost 40% of Lebanon; combined with your paramilitary wing, this makes you the ruler of a virtual state within a state, flush with money from your patrons, the governments of Syria and Iran. Across sectarian lines, you have gained respect, if not love, for your famous incorruptibility, which stands in stark contrast to the venality of Lebanon’s traditional Maronite and Sunni rulers.

The July War:

In July 2006, under your orders Hezbollah special forces infiltrated northern Israel, abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed three others, with the intention of conducting a prisoner exchange for Hezbollah loyalists imprisoned in Israel. The Israeli response stymied your plans: from July 13 until August 14, Israel launched a punishing air and ground offensive across the entirety of Lebanon, with the declared goal of liberating their soldiers and destroying Hezbollah as a military organization. It was a war which both sides had been long in preparing: while Israel had clearly been looking for a good excuse to legitimate the destruction of Hezbollah, you had been equally busy, and the invading Israeli troops soon realized that under your leadership Hezbollah had become one of the world's most deadly irregular militaries, supplied with the latest Russian and Iranian military equipment, protected by a complex system of bunkers and tunnels. By the second week of the war Israelis felt that they had been lured into a Hezbollah trap, and your units' continued success at guerilla warfare against the Israeli army quickly made Hezbollah the most popular Islamic movement in the Middle East, amongst Sunnis as well as Shiites. During the war you rained Katyusha rockets down on the Israeli port of Haifa, and used still unidentified weapons to attack Israeli ships in the Mediterranean. While your organization was seriously weakened during the course of the fighting, mounting Israeli public pressure brought the war to a close on August 14. While supporters of Israel trumpeted Israel's victory, much of the world disagreed: Hezbollah, an irregular military force, had survived after 32 days of fighting one of the world's best militaries, all the while firing missiles into Israel with impunity. UN Resolution 1701, which brought an official end to the conflict, called for the establishment of a strengthened international force on the Lebanese-Israeli border, but this force has declared that they will not disarm you: you remain the leader of Lebanon's sole surviving sectarian militia, completely rearmed by Iran after the war, but you also possess a new respectability that has enabled you to challenge the Lebanese government directly.

Parliamentary Crisis:

You emerged from the July War with a private army and more credibility than any other single political figure in Lebanon. Likewise, since February 2006 you had the political support of the legendary Maronite leader Michel Aoun, who supported your stance against corruption in the government. In December 2006 you finally flexed your political muscle, and withdrew all Shiite ministers from the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. You demanded greater representation for Shiites in the Lebanese government, in keeping with unacknowledged demographic realities and the simple fact that you already virtually rule southern Lebanon as a Hezbollah fiefdom. Siniora and his allies, including the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt have resisted your demands and accused you of trying to start a new civil war. You have responded with a series of protests that have brought one million of your supporters into Beirut and paralyzed the Siniora government. Aoun’s Christians have joined these protests, and promised to march on parliament itself if your demands are not met. Attempts at mediation have failed, and as of January 2007 your demands might have set the stage for a new Lebanese civil war.

Goals and Concerns:

Your traditional goals changed drastically as a result of the July War, and your new priorities are more pragmatic than your previous desire to create a Shiite theocracy in Lebanon. Simply put, as a result of the Israeli onslaught much of Lebanon has been leveled, and almost 30% of its population has been internally displaced. You skillfully managed public opinion during the war, and most Lebanese grudgingly praised you as the defenders of the country (including Siniora and Jumblatt). All the same, the Lebanese have not forgotten that you bear direct responsibility for the war in the first place. In August 2006 you publicly apologized for abducting Israel’s soldiers, claiming that you never predicted the severity of the Israeli response. To keep the greater public from turning against you, including your own Shiites, who suffered terribly in the war, you have begun rebuilding Lebanon’s infrastructure on a massive scale, spending so much Iranian money that Shiites have begun calling Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort “The Flood of Green.”

A secondary result of the war was the installment of a large UN force on the southern Lebanese border, simply to separate Hezbollah from Israel. Should the Lebanese government ask for it, this force could be empowered to disarm your organization, pursuant to UN Resolution 1701. Your overall political goal is to gain a large enough stake in the cabinet to keep such a request from being made. You do not want, or need, total control of the Lebanese government—you know the other sects would never tolerate that in any case; you simply wants one third of the cabinet seats (in your proposal this means 10 ministers) to secure veto power for Hezbollah. This is the rationale for your December 2006 rallies, and your call for “greater representation” in the Lebanese government. You do not want to overthrow the parliamentary system, but are content to make sure that it cannot threaten your interests, which during this period of rebuilding amount to simple survival for the time being.

Your foreign backers Iran and Syria, have become a complicating factor for Hezbollah’s political agenda. Many sources observe that you are a Lebanese nationalist first, and a Shiite revolutionary group second. It has been years since you truly agitated for an Islamic regime in Lebanon, and though you publicly call for the destruction of Israel it isn’t at the top of your agenda by any means. Unfortunately, your organization still thrives on Iranian money and weapons smuggled through Syria, and this means you are obligated to pursue Iran’s agenda vis-à-vis Israel and the United States. As Iran and the US move closer to military engagement, the Iranian regime has decided to use Hezbollah as a forward weapon against America’s closest regional ally, Israel. The July War was essentially a proxy war between America and Iran: Israel invaded Lebanon with American weaponry, and Hezbollah fought back with Iranian missiles, while Lebanon paid the price. Though you remain loyal to the Iranian clergy, this is a sore point for you, which your opponents have been quick to exploit: even though you have a proven track record of providing for your community, you are still in bed with two foreign governments which do not care about the welfare of the Lebanese people, including Syria, which occupied Lebanon for almost 20 years. Your overt loyalties to Iran and Syria will be tolerated so long as you continue to use their patronage to support the Lebanese Shiites, but the carnage of the July War have brought home the point that you may not be able to serve two masters.

Role-Playing Notes:

You are the most respected Islamist leader in the Middle East, commander of the world’s preeminent guerilla organization, and virtual master of southern Lebanon. You have been called the most dangerous leader in the Arab world, and the rising power of your Iranian backers has only increased your influence. All the same, you are not a megalomaniac, and your goals are pragmatic: you despise the US and Israel, but you do not condone groups like al-Qaida that indiscriminately slaughter civilians, and you would rather control events in Lebanon than seek the destruction of Israel. You are a revolutionary figure, and this means that you have to keep up a tough public persona, but on a practical level your goals are directed squarely at protecting and empowering Lebanon’s Shiite community.

The Shiites are Lebanon’s poorest, most neglected sect, and it has been your lifework to empower them by any means necessary. In the process you have become a paramilitary commander (some would say terrorist mastermind) but you pursue revolutionary change within the framework of Lebanese society, with the goal of empowering your community first and foremost. This is why you have created a militia and press for more influence in government; while you dream of a world without Israel, you are not about to sacrifice your power, or the wellbeing of your community, by vainly attacking Israel. You will hurt Israel whenever you can get away with it, as this increases your own credibility and guarantees the support of your backers, but after the July War you are unlikely to risk Israel’s ire in the near future. For now you have more immediate goals: gain a controlling interest in the Lebanese cabinet, rebuild your community’s infrastructure, and ensure the survival of Hezbollah as a military organization. Israel can be destroyed later.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/people_full_story.asp?service_id=6849

http://www.meib.org/articles/0402_ld.htm

http://www.cfr.org/publication/11132/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071401401_2.html

http://www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=5785

http://www.meib.org/articles/0402_ld.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4314423.stm

http://Wikipedia.com

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hizballah.htm

http://www.rotten.com/library/history/terrorist-organizations/hezbollah/