Political and financial gains: Hezbollah tampering with Lebanon, profiting from coronavirus

Shaima Hefzy

In addition to the deteriorating economic conditions in the country and the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Lebanese are facing the ambitions of the political groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

Hezbollah: A fake battle against coronavirus

Lebanese Hezbollah claims that it will wage a battle against coronavirus while paramilitary political groups seek to cultivate their legitimacy by helping the country’s exhausted economy, forgetting that its ambitions caused the economy to collapse.

“We are fighting this battle on all Lebanese territory,” said Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s secretary-general, in a televised speech last week. We are not running away from this battle and its risks. ”

Close Lebanon

The closure of Lebanon caused the suspension of businesses, restaurants and other businesses, which exacerbated the financial and economic crises in the country, destroying jobs and pushing people to more poverty.

But Hezbollah, while an integral part of a government full of corruption that has been the target of opposition protests over the past year, is seeking to use the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to restore its legitimacy.

“They wanted to show, as a party, that they will protect Lebanon in the same way that they protect them from Israel and ISIS,” says Hanin Ghaddar, a Shiite politics expert at the Washington Institute for Research.

Many Lebanese political parties are showing their presence in efforts to combat the epidemic in everything from cleaning the streets to delivering food baskets.

Funding is Hezbollah’s goal

Hezbollah is exploiting its potential to obtain funding despite the worsening situation in Iran – the party’s official sponsor – and its terrorist classification in Washington, London and, more recently, Germany.

The party also exploits its political expansion in the government in a number of ministries, including the Ministry of Health. It also runs a number of local municipalities, supervises religious institutions and charities and supports institutions from health to education.

Hezbollah is seeking to politicize the actions of the Lebanese government against coronavirus, with a political character in favor of the party itself, as this has helped to mobilize 24,500 paramedics, including 1500 doctors, in recent weeks in fighting the coronavirus as the party claims.

“At the moment, no other party can access even a third of Hezbollah’s resources,” said Randa Selim, a fellow at the American Middle East Institute.

In the fight against coronavirus, Hezbollah pursues its same policies, beginning as a resistance force during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon since the 1980s, and its ability to bridge gaps in public service helped to include it in Shi’a societies, which is usually the poorest population group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah admits that its poorest and most underserved constituency is particularly vulnerable to the virus, while analysts say Hezbollah also sees an opportunity to rebuild its image at home after a series of recent setbacks.