Jon B. Alterman, Leah Hickert & Will Todman
Jon Alterman: Nicholas Blanford is a Beirut based security consultant. He's also a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council. He's the author of, Killing Mr. Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East and Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah's Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel. Nicholas Blanford, welcome to Babel.
Nicholas Blanford: Thank you, Jon.
Jon Alterman: As you've written for many years, there are a range of Lebanese attitudes toward Hezbollah. In general, in Lebanon, have the last six months been good for Hezbollah or bad for Hezbollah?
Nicholas Blanford: To be honest, it's probably the same. The division in Lebanon has been so strong and divisive over Hezbollah's weapons and its military aspirations, that what has happened in the last six months is a continuation of the political divisions of Hezbollah's intervention in Syria, Hezbollah's alleged role in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and so on. What has been going on for the last six months is an expansion of the tensions and schisms between Hezbollah, its supporters, and other components in Lebanon that we've been seeing since at least 2005.
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