In a report sent to the UN Security Council on Friday, Guterres said: “The maintenance by Hezbollah of sizeable and sophisticated military capabilities outside the control of the government of Lebanon remains a matter of grave concern.”

He then called on the Shiite Hezbollah “not to engage in any military activity inside or outside Lebanon” in line with a 2004 UN resolution and told the Lebanese government to prevent the Iranian proxy group from “building paramilitary capacity outside the authority of the state”.

This report was released shortly after the Lebanese elections, which saw the Hezbollah faction in the Lebanese parliament increase its power share and dominance over the government.

Containing Hezbollah

Guterres also called on the countries of the Gulf region that have ties with Hezbollah to encourage the group, listed as a terrorist group by the US, to disarm themselves and become a “solely civilian political party”.

Over the past few years, Hezbollah has become involved in many conflicts across the Middle East from Syria to Israel, likely all at the behest of the Iranian Regime. Currently, the terror group is helping bolster the Bashar Assad dictatorship in the Syria civil war under the Iranian banner, fighting alongside paramilitary groups in Iraq, and supporting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in their fight against the Arab alliance to restore the legitimate government.

Despite several rounds of sanctions from the US and Europe and a war with Israel in 2006, global efforts to contain the Iran-backed Hezbollah have largely failed. The Security Council were scheduled to discuss the report from Guterres on Thursday, including options for tackling the Hezbollah problem going forward.

Iran Proxy

the Iranian Regime has a whole network of terrorist proxies across the Middle East and further afield, including Hamas, the Houthis, and the Popular Mobilisation Units. These groups have one focus: create chaos.

By creating chaos, these groups can destabilise the Middle East and leave it susceptible to infiltration by Iran, who is desperate to create a Shiite Crescent of its influence from the Gulf to the Med. It has the added benefit of making sure that Iran can deny responsibility for their actions by shifting the blame onto these groups.

Despite this attempt to pass the buck, the US has identified Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.