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
Hezbollah Movement in Iraq Hezbollah Movement in Iraq The Hezbollah Movement in Iraq () is a Shi'a Islamist, Iraqi political party that is part of the United Iraqi Alliance coalition. It is not affiliated with the Lebanese group Hezbollah or other groups using the name. "Hezbollah", or more literally "Hizb Allah" (حزب الله), means "Party of God" in Arabic. The party publishes the "Al-Bayyna" newspaper and is led by Hassan Al-Sari. Hezbollah originated as an underground anti-Saddam network. Unlike other anti-Saddam groups it remained based in Iraq, not setting up shop in Iran or the West. The party is closely aligned to the Islamic