It appears that someone in Hezbollah did not like our September 22 report on the incident between the IDF and the Lebanese Army in Deir Mimas, in which we asked whether the incident would have been avoided had the Lebanese force not been led by a Shiite officer.
On September 23, one of Hezbollah’s main mouthpieces, the newspaper Al-Akhbar, responded directly to our report with the headline: “Who decides the identity of Lebanese soldiers, the Lebanese Army’s commanders or Israel? And who is entitled to serve in the Lebanese Army in the south?”
The facts, the truth, and the reality are straightforward:
Hezbollah exploits demographics. Approximately 50 percent of Lebanese Army soldiers are Shiite.
Many Shiite officers and soldiers assist and cooperate with Hezbollah for various purposes. A significant number of them serve in southern Lebanon. Their actions range from acting in line with Hezbollah’s interests to following direct and explicit instructions from Hezbollah.
The Lebanese Army’s senior command has acted, and continues to act in ways that are “accommodating” to Hezbollah, to put it mildly. Chief among those “accommodating to Hezbollah” is Lebanese Army Commander Rodolph Haykal, alongside Nicolas Tabet, commander of the South Lebanon region.
Hezbollah cultivates Shiite field officers within the army’s brigades and regiments, following the Mohammad Farhat model (see our December 2025 report on him: “Mohammad Farhat, The ‘National Symbol of Cooperation with Hezbollah’”).
Hezbollah has a foothold in, and has deeply infiltrated, sensitive and highly influential units within the Lebanese Army, foremost among them the Intelligence Directorate. Senior Shiite officers in the directorate, whose identities are well known, cooperate directly with Hezbollah.
This raises a simple, broader question: Is Hezbollah not exploiting, and will it not exploit these factors to try to undermine the Lebanese Army’s functioning? We should recall that the Lebanese Army is a key part of the operational arm through which Lebanon’s president and government are to implement the current framework agreement with Israel and any concrete agreement in the future.
A tactical incident such as the one in Deir Mimas has the potential to trigger escalation and cause strategic damage to the diplomatic process underway between Israel and Lebanon. This is precisely what serves Hezbollah’s interests. A Shiite officer in southern Lebanon acting under Hezbollah’s direction could deliberately trigger a dangerous escalation.
The Lebanese state and its army must dismiss every officer who cooperates with Hezbollah in any way from the army commander on down. The Lebanese state and its army must ensure that the officers serving in southern Lebanon are professional and patriotic, loyal to the State of Lebanon not to the state of Hezbollah.
