Beirut watch: can Lebanon subdue Hizbullah?

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• 00:00

  The Economist.

• 00:09

  Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.

• 00:13

  I'm Rosie Blue.

• 00:19

  Today on the show, the Labubu bubble is bursting

• 00:22

  and remembering Margareta Magnusson, guru of decluttering.

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  But first.

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  If anything represents the tug of war going on between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah, it is Beirut Airport.

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  The airport is a particularly important institution in Lebanon

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  and for decades it has been a symbol of Hezbollah's control over the country.

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  Over the years, Hezbollah used the airport to bring Iranian weapons and money in and out of the country.

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  Gareth Browne is a Middle East correspondent.

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  I've traveled through this airport hundreds of times, literally,

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  and in the last year or so, I've seen a real change as it has become a battleground

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  in the Lebanese government's efforts to reassert sovereignty

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  and reclaim parts of the state that have long been ceded to Hezbollah.

• 01:29

  So Gareth, you're using the airport here as a microcosm of the relationship between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.

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  Just remind us of the context here and what has weakened Hezbollah recently.

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  Most recently, the Iranian-backed group have just come out of a six-week war with Israel.

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  A war that began within the atmospherics of the Israel-US-Iran war

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  and Hezbollah made the decision to unilaterally drag Lebanon into that conflict.

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