Will Iran's political turmoil shake Hezbollah?

The Shiite militant organization in Lebanon draws money and ideological guidance from Iran's supreme leader.

from the July 20, 2009 edition

Beirut, Lebanon - The political turmoil that has shaken Iran following its disputed presidential election last month is being keenly observed by Lebanon's militant Shiite Hezbollah, which takes many of its cues – earthly and spiritual – from the Islamic Republic.

Hezbollah is the only organization outside Iran that subscribes to that nation's ideology of theocratic leadership. The group was founded with Iranian help, still receives Iranian funding, and has at times turned to Iran's supreme leader for guidance on major political issues. Therefore, the outcome of current debates there over the way theocratic authority is wielded and the secular question of how Iran should manage its external relations is sure to reverberate inside Lebanon.

"Those who argue that this is only a disagreement between revolutionary elites are patently wrong," says Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Even ... a former senior Revolutionary Guard commander claimed that over 3 million people demonstrated in Tehran."

On Sunday, former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami called for a referendum on the current government's "legitimacy." Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the senior figure in the theocracy, vowed Monday that elites seeking change would be treated as "hated" people if they didn't back down. Analysts took that to mean some reformers could be treated as enemies of the state.

Hezbollah No. 2: We look to supreme leader for guidance

Despite the drama in Iran and the close ties to Hezbollah, which dreams of building a state on the Iranian model, the militant group's second-in-command insisted in an interview with the Monitor that events in Tehran will have little impact on his organization.

"The disagreements between the parties in Iran are affairs that concern essentially the Iranians," says Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general. "There will always be different points of view. This is normal and natural."

Yet he also acknowledges that Hezbollah looks to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's hard-line supreme leader, for general political and ideological guidance, which would imply that change at the top in Iran would have some impact on his organization.

"The [supreme leader] is the leader as far as we are concerned," says Sheikh Qassem. "He gives us these [religious] rules and [sets the guidelines for] our general political performance," says the white-turbaned cleric, sitting in a room with two pictures of Khamenei and his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini hanging on the wall. "He does not interfere in details."

Ideology of supreme authority

The indissoluble thread that binds Hezbollah to Iran is the wilayet al-faqih (velayat-e-faqih in Persian) – the guardianship of the jurisprudent – which forms the ideological bedrock of Iran's Islamic state. The concept of the wilayet al-faqih originated with Ayatollah Khomeini, father of Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. Khomeini's theory grants absolute authority over all matters – religious, social, and political – to a senior cleric chosen as the supreme leader. The supreme leader is regarded as an infallible source of emulation by some Shiite Muslims. Khomeini was the first, and Khamenei his successor.

The ideology of wilayet al-faqih is seen as a temporary measure pending the return of Imam Mehdi, who disappeared 1,000 years ago and was the last of 12 successors, recognized by Shiites, to the prophet Muhammad. His return, many pious Shiites believe, will usher in an era of perfect justice and global Islamic government.

Because the wilayet al-faqih is a relatively new concept, all fresh recruits to Hezbollah pass through a preparatory stage in which they are taught the tenets of the theory along with lessons in religion, politics, cultural, and social issues, as well as military training. The idea is to maintain ideological commitment.

Key decisions directly influenced by supreme leader

An example of the influence held by the supreme leader extends back to Hezbollah's founding in 1982, which came after Khomeini declared armed resistance to Israel's occupation of Lebanon a religious duty.