This is John Batchel, conversation with colleague David Dauud of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

about Hezbollah's ambition to stop the Israeli war by having international pressure weigh in.

The usual threat, if you don't stop this, it'll become a wider war.

Is it working?

David analyzes not only the international community, but also the Lebanese government

and the pressure being put on all players in the region to stop the idea of successes

and return to where the war started, which is Hezbollah's complete control of Lebanon and the northern

border of Israel. Here's David Dayud of the FD to explain. Much more of this later.

I mean, I think there is definitely an element of that, irrespective of whether it's being reported

in the news or not, the Iranians have been playing a pressure game from the outset of before this conflict spread into Lebanon, using the international's

communities, the international community's fear of Gaza turning into a regional conflagration,

they've been saying the continuation of the war means regional

conflagration, so stop the war. That logic continues to operate when it comes to Lebanon.

Hey, if you don't want this spreading and getting out of hand, stop the Israelis in Lebanon.

I think the international community has kind of moved on from that.

Where Hezbollah is betting elsewhere, though, is on the apparatuses of the Lebanese state,

particularly Nabih Birri, the Speaker of Parliament, who, you know, he's an ally slash rival of Hezbollah,

but he's been known to play the political side of the military coin that Hezbo is playing.

This goes back to 2006 where he did this, where he hasbel is fighting.

And he's using the legitimacy he has as someone who the West will talk to to achieve a ceasefire.

Now he's doing the same thing.

Hasbola has said, we have

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