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
Funding of Hezbollah laws the U.S. government placed financial sanctions on an Iraqi military leader named Al-Zaydi who allegedly was linked to Hezbollah financial activities and military support which was coordinated by Iran. Funding of Hezbollah The funding of Hezbollah partly occurs through donations. Lebanese Shias often make "zakat" contributions directly after prayers, leaving change in the two-handed Hezbollah collection tins. Hezbollah also receives financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and training, from Iran. The US estimates that Iran was giving Hezbollah about $60–$100 million per year in financial assistance but that assistance declined as other funding was secured, primarily from