Hezbollah European Union. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 in support of the Free Lebanon State, Israel occupied a strip of south Lebanon, which was controlled by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a Lebanese Christian militia supported by Israel. Hezbollah was founded in the early 1980s as part of an Iranian effort to aggregate a variety of militant Lebanese Shi'a groups into a unified organization. Hezbollah acts as a proxy for Iran in the ongoing Iran–Israel proxy conflict. Hezbollah was conceived by Muslim clerics and funded by Iran primarily to harass the Israeli occupation. Its leaders were followers of
Bayt al-Mal (Hezbollah) Company for Finance and Investment to secure loans and finance business deals for Hezbollah companies. According to Mr. Stuart Levey, U.S. Department of Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI),"Bayt al-Mal functions as Hezbollah's unofficial treasury, holding and investing its assets and serving as intermediaries between the terrorist group and mainstream banks." The central headquarters of Bayt al-Mal was located in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs. Bayt al-Mal (Hezbollah) Hezbollah Bayt al-Mal, AKA Hezbollah Bayt al-Mal Lil Muslimeen, is a Hezbollah-controlled organization that performs financial services for the organization. In Arabic, the term is used as "House