Who, and what, after Nasrallah? How Hezbollah decides its leadership, policies

Hezbollah, meaning ‘Party of God’, came into existence in 1982, three years after the Iranian revolution that put Shia clerics in charge of the country. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia group, with a band of about 100,000 fighters by its own account, and a socio-political presence in Lebanon.  

The Lebanon-based and Iran-backed group has been in a constant state of conflict with Israel, which has repeatedly targeted the group’s leadership forcing the militant outfit to find new leaders at different levels of its organisational structure.

The organisational structure of Hezbollah has evolved over decades. Its top-most decision-making body is called the Shura Council, which functions with five specialised councils managing the outfit’s day-to-day affairs — from recruitment to election and from propaganda to armed fighting in West Asia.  

The five bodies subordinate to the Shura Council are — the Executive, Judicial, Parliamentary, Political, and Jihad Councils. These five councils ensure that Hezbollah stays a powerful state-within-state entity in Lebanon, whose governance remains paralysed — especially after its military commander-turned-politician Michel Auon resigned as the president in 2022. The country does not have a president and it runs its affairs through an interim government as Hezbollah has continued to block the election of a president through its legislators and those of its allies in the 121-member Lebanese parliament.

Though Hezbollah translates to the “Party of Allah” in Lebanese, an Oxford University publication — Hezbollah: Power and Mobilization by Aurelie Daher — says that though it “is usually understood as an Islamist group…its structure is nothing like that of the Muslim Brotherhood or Sunni al-Qaida”.  

“Admittedly, an Islamic version of the decision-making process is to some extent reflected by the collegial command structure (“shura”). But the organisation at heart is not Islamic. Indeed, Hezbollah’s structure and its internal operations owe a good deal to communist and socialist models,” it says.

But how does Hezbollah decide whatever it does and how does it find recruits?

The Shura Council

Originally established during 1984-1986, it took its current shape in 1989. It is a body of seven members including the chief of the Shura Council. Currently vacant after the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who held the post of the secretary general. The Shura head is helped by a deputy secretary general and five heads of the subordinate councils. In theory, the Shura head is the “first among equals”, Nasrallah made it a position that towers over the rest.

The Shura Council literally means a consultative council and is Hezbollah’s supreme decision-making authority. It sits at the top of the organisational pyramid drawing the group’s vision and policies. The Shura Council decides matters unanimously or by a majority vote. Its decisions, once taken, can’t be challenged and religiously binding on party cadres.

But Hezbollah’s Shura Council is not a sovereign unit in itself. Due to its allegiance to Iran, its authoritative position is subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who is the Wali al-Faqih — the guardian of Islamic jurisprudence. So, if Hezbollah leadership is in a deadlock among its top council members, the matter is referred to the Supreme Leader of Iran to settle the matter.  

The Executive Council

This body came up in 1995 and is responsible for day-to-day operations of Hezbollah. It is the duty and responsibility of the Executive Council to execute the decisions taken by the Shura Council. The Executive Council also oversees all cultural, educational, social and political affairs of Hezbollah.

Its current chairman Hashem Saffiedine is being tipped to be the next Hezbollah chief. Some media reports claimed immediately after Nasrallah’s death that Saffiedine was chosen the Hezbollah chief. However, the group has described such reports as “speculative” and “misleading”

Its members are drawn from Hezbollah’s military unit, security department, organisational management and four subdivisions of Lebanon — spread over Beirut, Beqaa and parts of south Lebanon. It is a powerful body that influences the working of the other four councils subordinate to the Shura Council as its daily tasks involve information sharing, maintaining external relations, handling financial matters and coordinating affiliations.

The Jihad Council — the recruiting arm and much more

Formed the same year as the Executive Council, the Jihad Council functions like the backbone of Hezbollah. It handles its military wing, devises strategy about when and how to attack Israel, recruits new members to the group and constantly assesses security risks for the group and its leaders. Nasrallah headed the Jihad Council himself and ran it with the help of a range of officials, drawn from various branches of the group.

Media reports have quoted Hezbollah Shura Council member Naim Qassem as saying that the Jihad Council is made up of “those in charge of resistance activity, be that in terms of oversight, recruitment, training, equipment, security, or any other resistance-related endeavours”.  

It steps in to resolve matters where Hezbollah’s otherwise “purely political” bodies and subunits face off with an overlap of activities including “at either the jihad, recruitment or support ranks”. The Jihad Council closely monitors and executes military operations including maintaining, logistics and supplies, screens recruits, trains them and provides protection to the group’s VIPs.

The Jihad Council assesses the circumstances facing Hezbollah and lays down the guidelines for Hezbollah’s military units for it calls the Islamic Resistance — the fight against those opposed to its sectarian objectives. It was under this principle, Hezbollah jumped into the Israel-Hamas conflict following the October 7 raid by the Palestinian armed group last year.

Based on its assessment, if and when the Jihad Council concludes that an armed action or response is necessary, it recommends the same to the Shura Council, which, in turn, seeks approval from Iran’s Supreme Leader, whose consent is necessary for all Hezbollah operations.

Other councils of Hezbollah

Among the three other councils that run the organisation of Hezbollah, the premier is the Judicial Council that enforces Islamic law in areas under its control. This council sidelines the laws and constitution of Lebanon and runs a parallel judicial set up in the country while Hezbollah participates in the political legislative and administrative functions of the government.

The Parliamentary Council oversees and governs the conduct of the elected representatives of Hezbollah in the Lebanese parliament. It ensures that its members follow the orders of the Hezbollah leadership in the national parliament.

The Political Council deals with the daily political activities of Hezbollah in its areas of influence in Lebanon. Formerly known as Politburo, this body once gave the socialist ideological tilt of Hezbollah, especially during the initial years of its existence. It organises political campaigns, electoral issues and canvasses to spread Hezbollah’s political ideologies among Lebanese voters.

This structure makes Hezbollah a near perfect state-within-state in Lebanon where it recruits and trains its members, carries out its political, military and judicial activities parallel national institutions, while maintaining its affiliation to another sovereign country, Iran. All organisational appointments, in a way, happen through internal consultations but are subject to approvals by Iran’s Supreme Leader.