In late February, when Hezbollah attacked Israel at the behest of Iran, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri issued a rare rebuke. It is said that “shock” to the actions of Hezbollah A few days later, he used his political power against the group and he restrained himself block Lebanon’s decision to ban Hezbollah’s military arm.
Berri is the leader of the Amal Movement, a Shiite political party that, along with Hezbollah, has formed two Shiite factions in Lebanon since the 1980s. Berri was reported to be sure and Hezbollah that it will not intervene in the US conflict with Israel and Iran and plunge Lebanon into another war. And yet Hezbollah did it, shaking the Shiite coalition.
In late February, when Hezbollah attacked Israel at the behest of Iran, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri issued a rare rebuke. It is said that “shock” to the actions of Hezbollah A few days later, he used his political power against the group and he restrained himself block Lebanon’s decision to ban Hezbollah’s military arm.
Berri is the leader of the Amal Movement, a Shiite political party that, along with Hezbollah, has formed two Shiite factions in Lebanon since the 1980s. Berri was reported to be sure and Hezbollah that it will not intervene in the US conflict with Israel and Iran and plunge Lebanon into another war. And yet Hezbollah did it, shaking the Shiite coalition.
The ban on Hezbollah’s military arm has not yet led to the group’s disarmament or an end to the war, but it did show national solidarity. This led to speculation that the Amal Movement may be ready to break away from the group and forge a separate path for Lebanon’s Shia community, which strengthens the state and isolates Hizbollah.
Berri, however, is a master of doublespeak. Although he has created the impression that he may be separating from Hezbollah, he has also continued to protect the group’s interests and provide it with the necessary cover to continue attacking Israel and remain armed. He to be called for “calm and consensual talks” to discuss the “fate” of Hezbollah’s weapons – not for rapid disarmament.
“Berri is benefiting from Hezbollah and its weapons; (the Amal Movement) cannot win elections without them,” Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said. “He will not withdraw support from Hezbollah unless it is in his interest.”
The primary question for Berri and the Amal Movement is whether they will stick with Hezbollah or eventually unite with the Lebanese Shiite community under the Amal Movement. The calculation will depend on a number of factors, including the level of Shiite dissatisfaction with Hizbullah. Israeli bombings have displaced more than a million Lebanese since the start of the war between the United States and Israel and Iran.
Berri may also be the one person who can keep the Shiites within the Lebanese fold, and Lebanon to unite, as the call for federalism (ie, dividing the country along sectarian lines) grows.
“There is a growing call for federalism in Lebanon, and even division in some cases,” Sami Nader, a Lebanese political analyst, said. “More and more Christians and Sunnis now say they want a federation, some kind of separation. … They say (Hezbollah): If you want to keep your weapons, keep your army, keep it in your territory. You can’t force us to align with Iran.”
Berri, however, has taken a more conciliatory line on relations with Israel. On March 9, he rejected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s call for direct talks with Israel to resolve the growing conflict with Iran. He withdrew after Israel bombed areas of Lebanon populated by Amal Movement supporters on April 8.
“Amal-controlled neighborhoods were affected, including the headquarters of Berri,” Ghaddar said. “A number of Amal members were killed. … This was Israel’s message to Berri: Stop supporting Hezbollah.” Ghaddar later shared a poster with pictures of the slain members of the Amal Movement Foreign Policy.
But Berri is still undecided, and seems to be closing rather than aligning one way or the other. If there is a decisive outcome for the United States and Israel’s war with Iran, and the latter accepts the disarmament of Hezbollah as part of a larger deal with Washington, Berri is ready to rule the Shiite community in Lebanon. Or, if Lebanese Shiites themselves turn against Hezbollah and blame the group for the loss of life and property in southern Lebanon, Berri could present his party as a more sensible alternative.
“The Shiites have started saying Hezbollah made a mistake by attacking Israel,” said Ali Mourad, a Lebanese scholar and political activist who ran as an anti-establishment candidate in the country’s 2022 parliamentary elections. But the impact of the conflict on the Shiite duo is unclear.
Currently, Berri is betting on Hezbollah. The current conflict between the US, Israel and Iran is widely seen as a success for Iran, which in turn has promoted Hezbollah. And the Shiite community has not yet rejected the militants.
“The community will not abandon Hezbollah immediately,” Mourad said. “Look at the others. Walid Jumblatt did not do well in the (Lebanon) Civil War. But he is still the leader of the Druze. Samir Geagea, a former militia commander, is still the leader of the Lebanese Forces and the majority of Christians.” However, Lebanese Shiites, whose homes are in rubble and whose lives have been torn apart, are beginning to challenge Hezbollah’s victory narrative, Mourad said.
“There is no doubt that the losses that Hezbollah has suffered are great and the cost to the Shiite community is great,” Mourad said. “They are worse off than at any time in their recent history.”
Berri was born in Sierra Leone but recently moved to southern Lebanon. In the 1970s, he began to follow the Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr, who founded the Movement of the Dispossessed, to uplift the Shiite community in Lebanon; later it was renamed the Amal movement. Sadr mysteriously disappeared from Libya in 1978, and in 1980 Berri took over the mantle. Since then, he has created a movement.
Early during Berri’s leadership of the Amal Movement, Israel was trying to eliminate the threat and challenge posed by the Palestinian Liberation Movement fighters living in Lebanon. This put Berri and the PLO organization at odds. “The fighters were running away after firing their missiles, and Israel intervened and destroyed the villages in the south (Lebanon) with weapons and planes,” he was reported. he said.
In some ways, current events are reminiscent of that era. But today, the rockets of the Palestine Liberation Organization are not causing problems; They belong to Hezbollah.
Intersectarian violence has always been taboo among Lebanon’s historically marginalized Shiites. But Berri nevertheless has a history of fighting Hezbollah tooth and nail for power. The so-called “War of Brothers” in the 1980s left many people dead and society scarred.
Violence is considered counterproductive among Shiites when the community feels under siege at home and in the region. Berri is familiar with these feelings and described previous clashes with Hezbollah as “the dark ages,” in a memoir published in 2004.
“Yes, Hezbollah is facing a lot of anger from within the Shiite community, but my feeling is that this will slowly start to be absorbed considering the fact that the community feels besieged, isolated, and (d)rejected at home,” Michael Young, a Lebanese political expert, has been published on the social platform X. “Hezbollah can finally benefit from this tension. Lebanon’s sectarian politics can be amazing.”
With talks between the US and Iran faltering and the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire leaving Beirut but not the Shiite-occupied south of Lebanon, Berri is keeping his cards close to his chest. “I will not speak for now; but when the negotiations (with Israel) are over, I will have something to say,” Berri. he told it Al-Akhbaran Arabic language newspaper.
However, while the Lebanese government wants to lead negotiations with Israel directly and has talked about them as a matter of independence, Berri. he said any agreement must be under the “Saudi-Iranian-American umbrella.” He seems now to be interested, above all, in presenting himself as Lebanon’s most important domestic negotiator.
