Hizbullah / Hezbollah (just the group)

[BR]

Of course Hezbollah is an iranian proxy. In fact the organization was founded by dispatched units of the Pasdara(Irani Revolutionary Guard) in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon in the beginning of the eighties.

[Rex Brynen]

I suppose it depends on what one means by "proxy."

Hizbullah is an extremely close ally of Iran, and heavily funded and equipped by it. It is, at the same time, a very Lebanese organization, whose core constituency supports it because of its Lebanese goals (resistance to Israeli occupation, defending the political interests of the Shi'ite community) and not because of its Iranian connection.

Does Hizbullah slavishly follow orders from Tehran? No. Does it usually agree with Tehran? Yes--and, equally, Tehran usually defers to it on issues of Lebanese policy (although some differences seem to have been apparent during the recent presidential crisis).