HEZBOLLAH LEADER Hassan Nas rallah made headlines last week when he claimed during a rally that Hezbollah still possessed 20,000 rockets and missiles after this past summer’s war with Israel. The rally and the announcement were audacious: Some 350,000 supporters gathered in South Beirut to see Nasrallah appear publicly for the first time in nearly two months, mocking Israel and demonstrating Hezbollah’s steadfastness. Overshadowed amid all this were some pronouncements in Nasrallah’s speech that have important implications for U.S. interests and for the future of Lebanon.
In a striking departure from Hezbollah’s standard articulation of its raison d’etre as “resistance”–i.e., defending Lebanon from Israel, liberating Sheba farms, and freeing Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails–Nasrallah added a new domestic orientation to the group’s agenda. He linked Hezbollah’s disarmament to the formation of a “strong, capable, just, and clean” Lebanese state.
