Hezbollah spreads fear over new wave of assassinations in Lebanon

A well-known Lebanese political activist and essayist critical of the Hezbollah militia was found dead on 4 February, according to security and forensic officials. He was Lokman Slim, a 58-year-old Shiite. Security forces found his car at midnight on a rural road near the village of Addoussieh in southern Lebanon, a region where Hezbollah maintains a strong presence. 

Slim's criticism of the organisation made him the target of attacks by supporters of the armed movement, who referred to him disparagingly as "an Embassy Shia", a term they use to accuse opponents of being US puppets. In a recent television interview, Slim blamed Hezbollah for the explosion that ripped through the port of Beirut on 4 August, killing more than 200 people.

Hezbollah was named as the main suspect in his murder, although the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, dismissed accusations of any link to the activist's death and even went so far as to condemn the killing. However, Lebanese public opinion considers the group to be behind the assassination.

A report published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Foreign Policy magazine noted that Salim's murder sends a message to Hezbollah activists and critics in Lebanon, and may also be a message to test the reaction of the international community. Above all, to determine the red lines imposed by the Biden Administration and France. 

The report also notes that many of Slim's fellow activists now fear that Hezbollah will launch a round of assassinations similar to the one it committed after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, only halted when the organisation itself took control of the country's institutions three years later. 

Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation, confirmed the report's intentions, warning that the assassination was a message to activists, especially Shi'a activists, and a sign that targeted killings are no longer necessarily linked to "household names, but to people who are influential in shaping public opinion, shaping ideas".

Meanwhile, Lebanon's president and prime minister-designate, Michel Aoun and Saad Hariri, respectively, exchanged accusations again this week over the stalled process of forming a new government. Just a few days ago they met after two months to try to resolve the crisis, which ended without progress.

Prime Minister Hariri, leader of the Sunni-leaning Future Movement party, has slammed President Aoun, head of the centrist and secular Hezbollah-linked Free Patriotic Movement, for blocking the formation of the government by insisting on his veto power and denied that his latest proposal, submitted on 9 December, was a violation of the president's constitutional powers.

Hariri, son of the assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, intends to include a government of 18 technocrats to implement the reforms envisaged by the initiative presented by French President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the explosions of 4 August 2020 in the port of the capital, Beirut.

For his part, the Hezbollah leader has expressed his support for the country's president, Michel Aoun, and criticised Prime Minister Saad Hariri for his latest proposal to resolve the crisis. "I don't think anyone wants the government not to be formed. It is in everyone's interest that this happens and it is unacceptable to wait for foreign powers", he declared. However, he added that "holding the president alone responsible is unfair".

Nasrallah said he understood Hariri's position on his refusal to allow a political bloc to have a third of the seats, which would give it the right to veto, but said he "does not understand his insistence on the Interior Ministry and on having 18 ministers" in the executive. Nasrallah does not see any harm in seeking international help, but added that a total internationalisation of the process "will not solve the problems, but will only aggravate them".

Hariri was appointed in October, almost a year after resigning from office amid another wave of popular protests against his government. The appointment, received with unease by the population, came in the absence of an agreement on another candidate following the resignation of the then prime minister, Hassan Diab, who is in office until the formation of a new government.