Iran’s new Hezbollah strategy is about survival, not victory

On 1 October, Iran sent a senior delegation to southern Lebanon that included Brigadier General Hossein Yekta, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer involved in recruitment and ideological indoctrination, and hardline cleric Alireza Panahian. Both men had served in the same battalion as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during the Iran-Iraq War. Their visit came at a revealing moment: Hezbollah is militarily weakened, politically pressured and increasingly dependent on Iranian guidance. The composition of the delegation matters. If Hezbollah merely needed more weapons, Tehran could have sent military technicians, logisticians or commanders. Instead, it dispatched figures associated with recruitment, ideological mobilisation and internal security. That does not prove that the delegation was tasked with rebuilding Hezbollah, but its timing and composition […]