Lebanon stands at an historic crossroads. For decades, Hezbollah, the Frankenstein’s monster created by Tehran, has throttled this proud nation’s sovereignty, reducing it to a satrapy of the Iranian regime. At last, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has raised his voice against this malign interference. His stinging rebuke of Iranian envoys Ali Larijani – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, for trampling Lebanon’s independence was more than a diplomatic protest. It was a thunderclap, a signal to the mullahs that their hegemony in Beirut is fading. His pledge to disarm Hezbollah marks a vital step toward reclaiming sovereignty.
I know the script only too well. As President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq from 2009 to 2014, I saw firsthand how Tehran hijacked Iraq’s sovereignty. The Iranian regime exploited sectarianism, armed militias, and corrupted politics until Baghdad was left fragmented and helpless, almost a client state of Iran. Lebanon today faces the same suffocating grip.
Hezbollah’s roots lie in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini sought not merely to seize power in Tehran, but to export his doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, ruled by the clerics, across the Middle East. Lebanon was the laboratory. Backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and nurtured by Syria, Hezbollah emerged as the jewel in Tehran’s crown of proxies: armed, indoctrinated, and fanatically loyal to Iran and its fanatical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
What began as a militia claiming to “resist” Israel has metastasized into a state within a state, with its own army, media, schools, and political party. Hezbollah strangles Lebanon’s institutions, blocks reforms, and ensures chaos reigns whenever it serves Tehran’s interests. Every division, every schism, every crisis in Lebanon has been an opportunity for the mullahs to tighten their grip.
This malignant pattern extends across the region. The IRGC’s Quds Force, under the late terrorist chief Qassem Soleimani, orchestrated a web of proxy armies from Gaza to Yemen. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Shi’ia militias in Iraq formed the so-called “axis of resistance”, not resistance against tyranny, but against peace, stability, and democracy. As one IRGC commander boasted, Tehran created “six armies” to wage its wars by proxy.Yet today, Iran itself is in deep crisis. Assad’s regime in Syria has collapsed, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are under unprecedented pressure, and the Houthis are faltering. Inside Iran, discontent boils over as the economy collapses, corruption festers, and the people demand change. The regime is rotting, sustained only by brute force and by Western appeasement that still seeks to find a pearl in the rotting oyster of the theocratic regime.
That appeasement must end. For far too long, Western governments have looked the other way, prioritizing useless nuclear talks and oil supplies over the cries of the Iranian people and the destabilization of the region. This cowardice has emboldened Tehran’s aggression. The lesson is clear: firmness, not compromise, is the only viable policy.
Lebanon cannot be free while Tehran’s tentacles remain embedded in its soil. Disarming Hezbollah is essential, but it will not succeed so long as Iran’s embassy in Beirut remains open. That building is no ordinary embassy; it is the command center of subversion, the lifeline linking Hezbollah to its paymasters in Tehran. Closing it should be Lebanon’s first act of true sovereignty.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has long warned that Tehran’s clerical fascism is the epicenter of extremism in the Middle East. For 46 years, she has led the struggle to expose the regime’s duplicity and its exploitation of the Palestinian cause, while offering a democratic vision for Iran. Her call for the international community to recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the dictatorship deserves urgent attention.
The reality is stark. As long as the mullahs’ regime survives, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria,and Yemen will remain shackled by violence and instability. The key to peace lies not only in disarming Hezbollah, but in cutting off the hand that feeds it. That means isolating Tehran diplomatically, supporting the Iranian people’s resistance, and standing firm against appeasement.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister has dared to confront the mullahs. The world must stand with him. History has shown that tyranny thrives only when appeasement prevails. The time has come to sever Tehran’s umbilical cord and restore Lebanon’s independence.
Struan Stevenson is a former Member of the European Parliament, President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009–2014), and Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change. He is an international lecturer on Middle East policy and human rights.