A House of Many Mansions: Perceptions of Lebanese Political and Intellectual Elites toward Iran

ABSTRACT Lebanon is believed to be the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East. Lebanese elites play a significant role as identity-makers and parts of regional alliances. The present paper examines Lebanese intellectual and political elites’ perceptions of Iran. To this aim, the author conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with figures from Lebanese political parties with different political orientations and religious denominations. Using integrated threat theory to analyse the data, the author argues that the Lebanese elite’s view towards Iran illustrates various threat perceptions among members of different religious denominations in conjunction with their political affiliations. It will be discussed that Iran and Hezbollah have turned into an in-group for a particular, albeit a significant portion of the Shia community in Lebanon (mostly affiliated with Hezbollah) and an out-group for many in other religious and political denominations. Accordingly, Iran’s growing regional power is perceived as a realistic and symbolic threat by those who consider Iran (a Shi’ite entity and Hezbollah) the out-group.