It receives financial and political support from Iran and Syria, and its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds.
The governments of the U.S., Netherlands, Bahrain, Egypt, France, U.K., Australia, Canada, and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, in whole or in part.
Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, and programs for social development.
The organization has been called a state within a state.
Hezbollah alongside with some other groups began the 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
A later dispute over Hezbollah preservation of its telecoms network led to clashes and Hezbollah-led opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to Fouad Siniora.
Hezbollah receives military training, weapons, and financial support from Iran, and political support from Syria.
Following the end of the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon in 2000, its military strength grew significantly.
The group is believed to be responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israel, and for organizing the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that resulted in the deaths of 241 Americans.
Between 1982 and 1986, there were 36 suicide attacks in Lebanon directed against American, French and Israelis forces by 41 individuals, killing 659.
Hezbollah denies involvement in any attack, though it has been accused of some or all of these attacks.
Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory, in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to “liberate or recover occupied lands”.
The ideology of Hezbollah has been summarized as Shi'i radicalism.
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