According to the Lebanese journalist Hanin Ghaddar, Iran has succeeded in its decades-long attempt to turn Lebanon into a colony, and its main tool for doing so has been Hizballah:
Hizballah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, declared victory in Lebanon in his last speech. And he’s right. Hizballah won Lebanon and no one seems to care. . . . Political opponents of the Party of God and its hegemony over Lebanon lost the battle a long time ago, when they compromised [their] values for political gains. The state is increasingly weakened by the void in its institutions . . . and petty individual interests.
Regional powers are busy in Syria and Yemen while the international community seems to have given up on Lebanon. As long as Hizballah’s involvement in Syria is not challenged by the international community, it means only one thing for Lebanon: that Iran has been given a free hand to take over. . . .
To protect Hizballah’s arms, Iran will do anything, whatever it takes and no matter how many people and lives are sacrificed. . . . Today, there is no one to challenge Hizballah’s arms in Lebanon. To guarantee that [this will continue to be so] for the longest time possible, Hizballah will need [to foster the further] disintegration of state institutions, which will intensify and become worse. . . .
[T]he Party of God is steadily moving to take whatever is left of Lebanon. If no one stops it, Lebanon will be a state-within-Hizballah’s-state, not the other way around.
Read more on NOW: https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/566574-iran-won-lebanon