Israel has warned that "Hezbollah equals Lebanon" following the election success of the Iran-backed Shia Islamist group in the country's election.

Unofficial early results point to the group winning more than half the seats in the Lebanese parliament.

Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter: "The State of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory."

It is the first election in the country for nine years.

A low turnout led politicians to appeal via TV and Twitter for people to cast their vote just hours before polls closured on Sunday.

Lebanon's politics has been divided by the Syrian war, with some parties supporting the Iran-sponsored Hezbollah's intervention in Syria to aid President Bashar Assad, and other Saudi-aligned parties opposed to it.

The state has also often been a battleground for influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Despite losing seats, Western-backed Sunni prime minister Saad al-Hariri - who leads the anti-Hezbollah alliance Future Movement - remains the front runner to lead cabinet.

Following the conclusion of a 15-year civil war in 1989, the Taif Accord requires that Lebanon's president is a Maronite Christian, its prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and parliament's speaker a Shia Muslim.

The anti-Hezbollah Christian party Lebanese Forces also appears to have done well in the election, with indications that they have almost doubled their MPs from eight to 15.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is visiting Washington DC to address Donald Trump's concerns about the Iran nuclear deal.

Although he will not be meeting personally with Mr Trump, the foreign minister is expected to appear on Fox and Friends, known to be one of Mr Trump's favourite TV shows.

Official results of the Lebanese election are expected on Monday.</s>Hezbollah and its political allies are projected to take more than half of the seats in Lebanon’s 128-seat parliament, according to unofficial preliminary results of the general vote, cited by local media and politicians. Lebanon held its first parliamentary election in nine years on Sunday, with more than 500 candidates running in 15 districts across the country. The main race is between a Western-backed coalition, headed by Prime Minister Hariri, and Hezbollah (which is listed as a terrorist organization by Israel and the US) along with smaller parties and individuals who aligned with the Iranian-backed group.</s>Lebanon’s powerful Iranian-backed, Hezbollah-led alliance strengthened its position in the sectarian-riven parliament in the country’s first election in nine years, highlighting Iran’s regional rise at the expense of Saudi Arabia.

The alliance, which includes the Shiite Amal party and the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, was on course to win half or more of the seats in the 128-parliament, up from about a third, in a power shift that will somewhat reduce Saudi Arabia’s influence in the government.

The likelihood of gains for the Hezbollah-led alliance was based on widely reported preliminary results. Final results are expected later on Monday.

Read more: War between Israel, Iran unlikely: Hezbollah

While Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni who was born in Saudi Arabia and who leads the Saudi-backed Future Movement party, is expected to keep his job, the Hezbollah bloc’s rising influence will almost certainly allow it to capture more cabinet seats and potentially halt any legislation that it considers contrary to its interests as both a party and a militia group.

Independent parties and female candidates who had high hopes they could crack the political dynasties that have ruled the small, crisis-prone country for decades had their ambitions only partly fulfilled. At least one independent women candidate made a breakthrough in Beirut – a victory for the small, but ambitious, secular camp that got nowhere in the 2009 election. The final tally may produce more women winners.

The election was a long-awaited exercise in democracy in one of the world’s few Arab democracies and comes at a time when Lebanon, once again, lies close to the centre of regional conflict that threatens to drag it into another war that its citizens do not want.

The Lebanese hope that a stable government, driven by consensus and capable of implementing enough reforms to revive the ailing economy, would make the country strong enough to insulate itself from destabilizing internal and external tensions.

Analysts said the major parties no doubt decided weeks or months ago that Mr. Hariri would remain as prime minister even if Future Movement lost some ground. He is seen as a consensus builder and is actually popular with Hezbollah – perhaps overly so, in the Saudis’ view – meaning the Shiite parties are unlikely to demand that he resign. Under Lebanon’s delicate, sectarian power-sharing agreement, the prime minister must be a Sunni, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament a Shiite.

Even before the final results were known, the election was being hailed as a democratic success that produced a number of encouraging milestones.

Other than being the first parliamentary election since 2009, it is the first election since the start of the Syrian civil war; the first to allow Lebanese expatriates to vote; and the first under a new voting law that replaced the winner-take-all poll with a proportional-voting system. The new law theoretically makes it easier for small parties and independent candidates to claim a chunk of parliamentary real estate at the expense of the established parties, some of which are still run by the old warlords, or their sons, from the 1975-1990 civil war.

It is also the first election where social media came on strong and the first in which women played a prominent role. Of the nearly 600 candidates in the race, 84 were women, up from a mere dozen in 2009 (the outgoing parliament has only four female members).

Lebanon’s economy has been shattered by the seven-year civil war in Syria, its biggest trading partner, and a refugee crisis that has seen Lebanon reluctantly absorb 1.5 million Syrians. Last year, the Lebanese armed forces, with the help of Hezbollah, repelled attacks from Islamic State fighters and now fears that Israeli bombing raids on alleged Iranian targets in Syria could trigger a conflict that would renew the 2006 battles between Israel and Hezbollah on Lebanon’s southern frontier.

The Saudi regime will be disappointed by the election results. It had been trying to move the Future Movement and Mr. Hariri himself firmly into the Saudi orbit. Last November, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman summoned Mr. Hariri to Riyadh, where, under pressure, he resigned for the apparent sin of having accommodated Hezbollah in parliament. Shortly after his return to Beirut, where he received a hero’s welcome, Mr. Hariri reversed his resignation.

A stronger Hezbollah-led Shiite bloc will not sit well with the American, Saudi and Israeli governments, among others, which consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization that is doing Iran’s bidding in Lebanon and Syria. Even before the official election results were released on Monday, Israel education minister Naftali Bennett condemned the Hezbollah alliance’s parliamentary gains. “The State of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign state of Lebanon and Hezbollah,” he said in a tweet.

On Sunday, at a polling station in Beirut 2, the west Beirut voting district that is the country’s single biggest, younger voters seemed to be out in force in the late afternoon even if the older generations were not. The voter turnout was 49.2 per cent, according to the Interior Ministry; it was 54 per cent in 2009.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called the turnout “weak.” Former prime minister Najib Mikati said turnout was a disappointing because “people reject the current [electoral] law.”

Youssef Tormoch, 31, a Christian who works at a bank, said he voted for a civil-society candidate − a candidate not loyal to a particular sectarian party and its traditional ideology − because the Lebanese parliament needs a jolt. Even though he thought few civil-society candidates would make the cut, even the election of one or two, he said, “would deliver the message that something needs to change. My vote is for civil society and was in protest of every politician, every political party.”

One of the independent women candidates who won in Beirut was Paula Yacoubian, who will take an Armenian orthodox seat in parliament. Ms. Yacoubian, 41, a former journalist, fought a tough battle. “She faced big money, slander, sexism, fake news, and yet managed to keep her composure and maintain the high moral ground,” Karim Emile Bitar, a senior fellow at the Paris think-tank Institut IRIS, said in a tweet. “She’ll be one of the very few liberal and secular voices in parliament.”

Several young Muslim Americans, members of a religious charity called the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, made the trek from the United States so they could vote in the election. One was Farah Karakira, 24, of Philadelphia, who was born in Los Angeles of Lebanese parents and works in a Home Depot. “I didn’t even vote in America, but I am voting here because it’s important,” she said, revealing that she voted for a Sunni candidate.</s>The leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group declared “mission accomplished” after scoring major gains in parliamentary elections, as the main Western-backed faction headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri lost a third of its seats.

The leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group declared “mission accomplished” after scoring major gains in parliamentary elections, as the main Western-backed faction headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri lost a third of its seats.

They also underline the growing clout of the group in Lebanon where it dominates politically and militarily. Mr Hariri acknowledged the losses at a news conference in Beirut on Monday, but said “it’s not the end of the world”.

The international community, he said, should look at the results in a “positive way” because they reflect democracy in Lebanon. He blamed his losses on a new election law and a performance by his political party “that wasn’t up to the standards”. “My hand is extended to every Lebanese who participated in the elections to preserve stability and create jobs,” Mr Hariri said in a televised statement. He said he would continue to work closely with President Michel Aoun, who is allied with the rival, Hezbollah-led bloc.

The official count, announced by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk at a news conference, showed that Mr Hariri, a Sunni politician with close ties to Saudi Arabia, has lost at least five seats in Beirut, once considered his party’s stronghold. Mr Hariri told reporters that his Future Movement won 21 seats, a decline of 11 from the last election, in 2009. He would still have the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, facilitating his return as prime minister to form the next government.

Hezbollah and its political allies gained at least 43 seats, giving another boost to Iran’s allies in Lebanon and Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown in recent years as it has provided crucial support to President Bashar Assad. The elections were the first since war broke out in Syria in 2011, sending more than one million refugees fleeing into Lebanon, a small country with a population estimated at around 4.5 million.

The results indicated Sunni voters were losing faith in Mr Hariri’s party amid a declining Saudi role in Lebanon, a deteriorating economy and general exasperation over the civil war in Syria, which has further strained the economy to the breaking point. They also point to a Sunni constituency that is frustrated by what they see as weakness and compromises offered to the Hezbollah camp. The deputy chief of Hezbollah, Sheik Naim Kassem, casts his ballot (Hassan Ammar/AP) Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his party’s gains would give “protection” to the group and declared “mission accomplished” after weeks of campaigning.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the US, but its political wing has long held seats in Lebanon’s parliament and was part of Lebanon’s outgoing coalition government. Mr Nasrallah did not say how many seats his group and its allies won, but the official results showed they took at least 43 of the legislature’s 128 seats, giving them the power to veto laws.

Hezbollah maintained its bloc of 12 members, like in the previous parliament. Other pro-Syrian factions made their strongest showing since Damascus ended a nearly three-decade military presence in Lebanon in 2005. “There is a major political, parliamentarian and moral victory for the choice of the resistance,” Mr Nasrallah said in a televised speech. Hezbollah supporters road through the streets of Beirut on scooters, honking their horns and waving the militant group’s signature yellow flag as some shouted sectarian slogans. Some were attacked with clubs and sticks when they entered a predominantly Sunni district on Monday night.

The next Cabinet, like the outgoing one, will likely be a unity government that includes Hezbollah. The two sides can hardly govern effectively without each other, something Hariri alluded to at his news conference. Asked whether he would give up co-existing with the group in a unity government, Mr Hariri countered that the alternative would mean complete paralysis. “We tried that in the past,” he said. “The country needs stability. … Lebanon needs jobs, development, tourism and electricity,” he said.

The election, the first in nine years, was marked by a low turnout, especially in the capital, Beirut, reflecting voter frustration over endemic corruption and a political establishment that fails to deliver on basic services, such as waste management and electricity. Another big winner was the right-wing Christian Lebanese Forces, which almost doubled its number of seats to 15. The group has vowed to combat the country’s rampant corruption.</s>Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) A parliamentary bloc led by Saudi-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri has lost more than a third of its seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections, the premier said in a live televised address on Monday.

His main opponent, Hezbollah and its political allies, as well as rival Sunni parties have made gains, according to unofficial results.

If confirmed, the results further solidify Hezbollah's power in Lebanon's national government. After years of fighting in Syria's civil war, the Iranian-backed Shia group group drew on its popular bases across the country to boost its political might.

In a televised speech, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the elections produced a Parliament that could protect the group's "strategic choices," an apparent reference to the party's fighting force.

"Today I can say that our goals have been achieved," said Nasrallah, calling the results a "great moral and political victory."

Hariri's Future bloc won 21 seats, a drop from the 31 seats that it held before the election, which made it the country's largest parliamentary bloc.

The Future bloc still remains the largest among Sunni parties. In Lebanon's power-sharing system, this allows Hariri to remain the top contender for prime minister in the next government.

Hezbollah-backed electoral lists went virtually unchallenged, sweeping the group and its allies to power in nearly every district they contested, according to preliminary results.

Hariri has come under public criticism by his Saudi political patrons for sharing a government with Hezbollah -- the United States and Gulf countries consider the militant group a terrorist organization.

But the improved standing of the Hezbollah bloc in Parliament may lead to greater participation in the next government.

"We're in front of a new phase and the challenges are large, and I, as the head of the Future Movement, will continue to lead with all these challenges on an economic, social and developmental level," said Hariri at a news briefing Monday.

The Prime Minister chalked the results up to a new proportional election law, which he credited for allowing new parties to "penetrate" the system, but posed a challenge to his party's position.

"It's purely because of the law," Hariri said in response to a question about his party's poorer standing.

Shortly after preliminary results began to emerge showing Hezbollah's gains, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted that Hezbollah and Lebanon were one and the same.

"Hezbollah = Lebanon," Bennett wrote. "The State of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory."

Responding to Bennett's statement, Hariri said: "I think Israel is looking for any reason to choke us. Lebanon is Lebanon's government."

Sunday's vote was the first parliamentary election in nine years, but less than half of registered voters turned up to cast their ballots, according to Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk.

"Definitely (Hezbollah) are the biggest winners of this election," said visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway University Ibrahim Halawi.

"The biggest loser is Hariri because he has to compromise to both his allies and his foes, and Hezbollah can now expect compromises from everyone."</s>Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, unofficial results showed, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran’s growing regional clout.

Branded a terrorist group by the United States, the heavily armed Shi’ite Hezbollah has grown in strength since joining the war in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad in 2012.

The apparent gains made on Sunday by a Hezbollah-backed alliance risk complicating Western policy towards Lebanon, a big recipient of U.S. military support that is banking on foreign aid and loans to revive its stagnant economy.

An Israeli minister said the outcome, which has yet to be confirmed by official results, showed the Lebanese state was indistinguishable from Hezbollah, signalling the risk of Israel hitting Lebanon’s government in a future war.

The unofficial tally in the first parliamentary elections in nine years indicated sharp losses for Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. But he was still set to emerge as the Sunni Muslim leader with the biggest bloc in the 128-seat house, making him the frontrunner to form the next government.

Iranian media appeared to gloat at Hariri setbacks; Iran’s hardline Tasnim news agency ran a report headlined: “Lebanese election result puts an end to Hariri’s monopoly among Sunnis.”

Lebanon’s prime minister must be a Sunni in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system. The new government, like the outgoing one, is expected to include all the main parties. Talks over Cabinet posts are expected to take time.

“Hariri is going to be further weakened in any kind of government going forward,” Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute said. “His ability to substantially tame or restrain Hezbollah … in Lebanon is going to be very limited.”

“It will lead to more criticism of U.S. military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces” in Washington, he added.

The election was held under a complex new law that redrew constituency boundaries and changed the electoral system from winner-takes-all to a proportional one. The official results were not declared on Monday morning as expected, and there was no new announcement of when they might be announced.

The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, however emerged as a big winner, nearly doubling its MPs to at least 15 from eight, according to the initial indications.

Hezbollah, along with allied groups and individuals, secured at least 67 seats, according to a Reuters calculation based on preliminary results for nearly all the seats obtained from politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media.

Seats in the Lebanese parliament are divided according to a strict sectarian quota. The number of Hezbollah MPs was the same or little changed at around 13, but candidates backed by the group or allied to it made significant gains.

Hezbollah-backed Sunnis did well in Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Hariri’s Future Movement, the preliminary results showed. The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper declared the election a “slap” for Hariri on its front page.

Hezbollah-backed winners include Jamil al-Sayyed, a retired Shi’ite general and former Lebanese intelligence chief who is a close friend of Assad.

Sayyed was one of the most powerful men in Lebanon in the 15 years of Syrian domination that followed the 1975-90 civil war.

At least five other figures who held office then returned to parliament for the first time since Syrian forces quit Lebanon after the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad’s father.

Faisal Karami, the son of the late pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami, won a seat for the first time.

Hezbollah’s big allies include the Shi’ite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally since 2006 who has said its arsenal is needed to defend Lebanon.

While Hezbollah and its allies do not always see eye to eye, their support for its arsenal is vital to the group in Lebanon, where its weapons have been a major point of friction for years.

Hezbollah lost ground in Baalbek-Hermel constituency, one of its strongholds. Two of the 10 seats there were won by its opponents, one by the Lebanese Forces and the other by Future. It also failed to win a Shi’ite seat in coastal Byblos town.

Hezbollah and its allies are not on course to win the two-thirds majority that would be required to pass big decisions such as changing the constitution.

Turnout was 49.2 percent, down from 54 percent the last time legislative elections were held nine years ago.

Independent candidates running against the political establishment may have won two seats in Beirut.

An anti-Hezbollah alliance led by Hariri and backed by Saudi Arabia won a majority in parliament in 2009. But that “March 14” alliance has disintegrated and Riyadh has switched its attention to confronting Iran in other parts of the region, notably Yemen. Hariri may have lost nearly a third of his 33 seats.

Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces leader, said the results showed there was still a “popular ground” that backs March 14 and would “give us strength and a push to fix the path much more than we were able to in the past years”.

Geagea is Hezbollah’s most prominent Lebanese Christian opponent. He led the Lebanese Forces militia in the last years of the civil war, during which he was an adversary of Aoun.

Hariri has urged the quick formation of a government after the election so it can press ahead with reforms needed to reduce state debt levels that are among the highest in the world.

Donors want to see reform before they release some of the $11 billion of aid and soft loans pledged in April.

Lebanon has been a big recipient of foreign aid to help it cope with hosting one million refugees who fled the war in neighbouring Syria, equal to one-in-four of the population.

Lebanon should have held a parliamentary election in 2013 but MPs instead voted to extend their own term because leaders could not agree on a new parliamentary election law.

The question of Hezbollah’s weapons has slipped down the political agenda in Lebanon in recent years.

Hariri, who led years of political conflict with the group, says it is an issue to be resolved regionally through dialogue.

The Lebanon vote is to be followed on May 12 by an Iraqi election that is also set to underlineIran‘s reach, with one of three pro-Tehran Shi’ite leaders set to become prime minister.</s>A Hezbollah supporter drives a car adorned with Hassan Nasrallah's face on election day in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, May 6, 2018.

The Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah and its political allies won more than half the seats in Lebanon’s first parliamentary election in nine years, according to unofficial preliminary results cited by politicians and Lebanese media.

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The result, if confirmed by the final count, would boost Hezbollah politically, with parties and individuals aligned with the heavily armed group securing a simple majority in parliament in Sunday’s election.

Hezbollah’s powerful position in Lebanon reflects Iran’s regional ascendancy in territory stretching through Iraq and Syria to Beirut. It is an enemy of neighboring Israel and classified as a terrorist group by the United States.

>>Lebanon votes: Will the country be Iranian or Arab?

The unofficial tally indicated that Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri would emerge as the Sunni Muslim leader with the biggest bloc in the 128-seat parliament, making him the frontrunner to form the next government even though he lost seats in his strongholds.

Lebanon’s prime minister must be a Sunni according to the country’s sectarian power-sharing system. The new government, like the outgoing one, is expected to include all the main parties. Talks over cabinet posts are expected to take time.

International donors want to see Beirut embark on serious economic reforms to reduce state debt levels before they will release billions pledged at a Paris conference in April.

The election was held under a complex new law that redrew constituency boundaries and changed the electoral system from winner-takes-all to a proportional one. The interior minister said official results would be declared on Monday morning.

The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, appears to have emerged as a big winner, nearly doubling its MPs to 15 from eight, according to the unofficial indications.

Hezbollah, along with affiliated groups and individuals, secured at least 67 seats, according to a Reuters calculation based on preliminary results for nearly all the seats obtained from politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media.

Hezbollah’s allies include the Shi’ite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the Christian Free Patriotic Movement established by President Michel Aoun and others that view its weapons as an asset to Lebanon.

Hezbollah-backed Sunnis did well in Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Hariri’s Future Movement, the preliminary results showed. The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper called it “the slap” for Hariri on its front page.

Hezbollah-backed winners include Jamil al-Sayyed, a retired Shi’ite general and former Lebanese intelligence chief who is a close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to the unofficial results.

Sayyed was one of the most powerful men in Lebanon in the 15 years of Syrian domination that followed the 1975-90 civil war.

At least five other figures who held office during the Syria-dominated era returned to parliament for the first time since Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon after the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad’s father, in 2005.

Faisal Karami, the son of the late pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami, won a seat for the first time.

Turnout was 49.2 percent, down from 54 percent the last time legislative elections were held nine years ago.

Independent candidates running against the political establishment won two seats in Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was due to speak about the results later on Monday.

But Hezbollah lost ground in one of its strongholds, the Baalbek-Hermel constituency. Two of the 10 seats there were won by its opponents, one going to the Lebanese Forces and the other to Future.

Lebanon should have held a parliamentary election in 2013 but MPs instead voted to extend their own term because leaders could not agree on a new parliamentary election law.

An anti-Hezbollah alliance led by Hariri and backed by Saudi Arabia won a majority in parliament in 2009.

But that “March 14” alliance has disintegrated and Saudi Arabia has switched its attention and resources to confronting Iran in other parts of the region, notably Yemen.

Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces leader, said the results showed there was a “popular ground” that backs March 14 and would “give us strength and a push to fix the path much more than we were able to in the past years”.

Geagea is Hezbollah’s most prominent Lebanese Christian opponent. He led the Lebanese Forces militia in the last years of the civil war, during which he was an adversary of Aoun.

The question of Hezbollah’s weapons has slipped down the political agenda in Lebanon in recent years. Hezbollah has grown militarily more powerful since 2012, deploying its fighters to Syria and Iraq where it has fought in support of Iranian allies.

Hariri, who led years of political conflict with the group, says it is an issue to be resolved at the regional level through dialogue.

The Lebanon vote is to be followed on May 12 by an Iraqi election that is also set to underline Iran’s reach, with one of three pro-Tehran Shi’ite leaders set to become prime minister.

Enhanced Hezbollah sway over Lebanon will likely alarm the United States, which arms and trains the Lebanese army.

But the group and its allies are not on course to win the two-thirds majority that would allow them to pass big decisions alone such as changing the constitution.</s>The Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its political allies looked set to win more than half the seats in Lebanon's first parliamentary election in nine years, according to preliminary results cited by politicians and Lebanese media.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah and its political allies made significant gains in Lebanon's parliamentary election, official results showed, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran's growing regional clout.

The leader of Shi'ite Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called the result a "a very big political, parliamentary and moral victory for the choice of resistance".

The number of Hezbollah MPs was the same or little changed, but candidates supported by the group or allied to it gained in major cities. Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats in parliament, according to final results from all but one of Lebanon's 15 electoral districts.

Branded a terrorist group by the United States, heavily armed Shi'ite Hezbollah has grown in strength since joining the war in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad in 2012.

The strong showing by parties and politicians who support Hezbollah's possession of weapons risk complicating Western policy in Lebanon, which is banking on foreign aid and loans to revive its stagnant economy and receives U.S. military support.

An Israeli minister said the outcome showed the Lebanese state was indistinguishable from Hezbollah, signalling the risk of Israel hitting Lebanon's government in a future war.

Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri lost over a third of his seats, the results showed. He blamed a complex new voting law and gaps in his party's performance.

But with 21 MPs, down from 33 in the last parliament, he still emerged as the Sunni Muslim leader with the biggest bloc in the 128-seat house, making him the frontrunner to form the next government.

The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, emerged as a big winner, nearly doubling its lawmakers to around 15, according to initial indications.

Lebanon's prime minister must be a Sunni under its sectarian power-sharing system. The new government, like the outgoing one, is expected to include all the main parties. Talks over cabinet posts are expected to take time.

"Hariri is going to be further weakened in any kind of government going forward," said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute. "His ability to substantially tame or restrain Hezbollah... in Lebanon is going to be very limited."

Official results released late on Monday showed that Hezbollah, along with allied groups and individuals, secured at least 65 seats. The final results for Akkar district have yet to be announced.

Seats in parliament are divided according to a strict sectarian quota.

Hezbollah-backed Sunnis won seats in Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Hariri's Future Movement, where the army was forced to deploy on Monday evening to break up clashes between Hariri and Hezbollah supporters.

The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper declared the election a "slap" for Hariri.

Hezbollah-backed winners include Jamil al-Sayyed, a retired Shi'ite general and former Lebanese intelligence chief who is a close friend of Syria's Assad.

Sayyed was one of the most powerful men in Lebanon in the 15 years of Syrian domination that followed the 1975-90 civil war.

At least five other figures who held office then returned to parliament for the first time since Syrian forces quit Lebanon after the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father.

Faisal Karami, son of the late pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karami, won a seat for the first time.

Iranian media appeared to gloat at Hariri's setback. The hardline Tasnim news agency ran a report headlined: "Lebanese election result puts an end to Hariri’s monopoly among Sunnis."

Hezbollah's big allies include the Shi'ite Amal Movement, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally since 2006 who has said its arsenal is needed to defend Lebanon.

While Hezbollah and its allies do not always see eye to eye, their support for its arsenal is vital to the group in Lebanon, where its weapons have been a major point of friction for years.

Hezbollah lost ground in the Baalbek-Hermel constituency, one of its strongholds. Two of 10 seats there were won by its opponents, one by the Lebanese Forces and the other by Future. It also failed to take a Shi'ite seat in Byblos.

Turnout was 49.2 percent, down from 54 percent the last time legislative elections were held nine years ago.

An independent candidate running against the political establishment won a seat in Beirut.

An anti-Hezbollah coalition led by Hariri and backed by Saudi Arabia won a majority in parliament in 2009. But that "March 14" alliance disintegrated and Riyadh has switched its attention to confronting Iran in other parts of the region, notably Yemen.

Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces leader, said the results showed there was still a "popular ground" that backs "March 14" and would "give us strength... to fix the path much more than we were able to in past years".

Geagea is Hezbollah's most prominent Lebanese Christian opponent. He led the Lebanese Forces militia in the last years of the civil war, during which he was an adversary of Aoun.

Hariri has urged the quick formation of a government after the election so it can press ahead with reforms needed to reduce state debt levels, among the highest in the world.

He said the international community should look at the election result "in a very positive way".

Donors want to see reforms before they release some of the US$11 billion of aid and soft loans pledged in April.

Lebanon has been a big recipient of foreign aid to help it cope with hosting one million refugees from neighbouring Syria.

Nasrallah called for the quick formation of a new government and said it should be done in a spirit of cooperation, putting aside differences.

Lebanon should have held a parliamentary election in 2013 but MPs instead voted to extend their own term because leaders could not agree on a new parliamentary election law.

The question of Hezbollah's weapons has slipped down on Lebanon's political agenda in recent years. Hariri, who led years of political conflict with the group, says it is an issue to be resolved regionally through dialogue.

The Lebanon vote is to be followed on May 12 by an Iraqi election that is also set to underline Iran's reach, with one of three pro-Tehran Shi'ite leaders set to become prime minister.

Iran said it respected Lebanon's election, while France said the vote was an important step.</s>BEIRUT - Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats in Lebanon's parliamentary elections, unofficial results showed, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran's growing regional clout.



Branded a terrorist group by the United States, the heavily armed Shi'ite Hezbollah has grown in strength since joining the war in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad in 2012.





The apparent gains made on Sunday by a Hezbollah-backed alliance risk complicating Western policy towards Lebanon, a big recipient of US military support that is banking on foreign aid and loans to revive its stagnant economy.An Israeli minister said the outcome, which has yet to be confirmed by official results, showed the Lebanese state was indistinguishable from Hezbollah, signaling the risk of Israel hitting Lebanon's government in a future war.The unofficial tally in the first parliamentary elections in nine years indicated sharp losses for Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. But he was still set to emerge as the Sunni Muslim leader with the biggest bloc in the 128-seat house, making him the frontrunner to form the next government.Iranian media appeared to gloat at Hariri setbacks; Iran’s hardline Tasnim news agency ran a report headlined: "Lebanese election result puts an end to Hariri’s monopoly among Sunnis."Lebanon holds its first general election in nine years, May 6, 2018 (Reuters)Lebanon's prime minister must be a Sunni in the country's sectarian power-sharing system. The new government, like the outgoing one, is expected to include all the main parties. Talks over Cabinet posts are expected to take time."Hariri is going to be further weakened in any kind of government going forward," Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute said. "His ability to substantially tame or restrain Hezbollah... in Lebanon is going to be very limited.""It will lead to more criticism of US military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces" in Washington, he added.The election was held under a complex new law that redrew constituency boundaries and changed the electoral system from winner-takes-all to a proportional one. The official results were not declared on Monday morning as expected, and there was no new announcement of when they might be announced.The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, however emerged as a big winner, nearly doubling its MPs to at least 15 from eight, according to the initial indications.Hezbollah, along with allied groups and individuals, secured at least 67 seats, according to a Reuters calculation based on preliminary results for nearly all the seats obtained from politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media.Seats in the Lebanese parliament are divided according to a strict sectarian quota. The number of Hezbollah MPs was the same or little changed at around 13, but candidates backed by the group or allied to it made significant gains.Hezbollah-backed Sunnis did well in Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Hariri's Future Movement, the preliminary results showed. The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper declared the election a "slap" for Hariri on its front page.Hezbollah-backed winners include Jamil al-Sayyed, a retired Shi'ite general and former Lebanese intelligence chief who is a close friend of Assad.Sayyed was one of the most powerful men in Lebanon in the 15 years of Syrian domination that followed the 1975-90 civil war.At least five other figures who held office then returned to parliament for the first time since Syrian forces quit Lebanon after the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father.Faisal Karami, the son of the late pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami, won a seat for the first time.Hezbollah's big allies include the Shi'ite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally since 2006 who has said its arsenal is needed to defend Lebanon.While Hezbollah and its allies do not always see eye to eye, their support for its arsenal is vital to the group in Lebanon, where its weapons have been a major point of friction for years.Hezbollah lost ground in Baalbek-Hermel constituency, one of its strongholds. Two of the 10 seats there were won by its opponents, one by the Lebanese Forces and the other by Future. It also failed to win a Shi'ite seat in coastal Byblos town.Hezbollah and its allies are not on course to win the two-thirds majority that would be required to pass big decisions such as changing the constitution.Turnout was 49.2 percent, down from 54 percent the last time legislative elections were held nine years ago.Independent candidates running against the political establishment may have won two seats in Beirut.An anti-Hezbollah alliance led by Hariri and backed by Saudi Arabia won a majority in parliament in 2009. But that "March 14" alliance has disintegrated and Riyadh has switched its attention to confronting Iran in other parts of the region, notably Yemen. Hariri may have lost nearly a third of his 33 seats.Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces leader, said the results showed there was still a "popular ground" that backs March 14 and would "give us strength and a push to fix the path much more than we were able to in the past years."Geagea is Hezbollah's most prominent Lebanese Christian opponent. He led the Lebanese Forces militia in the last years of the civil war, during which he was an adversary of Aoun.Hariri has urged the quick formation of a government after the election so it can press ahead with reforms needed to reduce state debt levels that are among the highest in the world.Donors want to see reform before they release some of the $11 billion of aid and soft loans pledged in April.Lebanon has been a big recipient of foreign aid to help it cope with hosting one million refugees who fled the war in neighboring Syria, equal to one-in-four of the population.Lebanon should have held a parliamentary election in 2013 but MPs instead voted to extend their own term because leaders could not agree on a new parliamentary election law.The question of Hezbollah's weapons has slipped down the political agenda in Lebanon in recent years.Hariri, who led years of political conflict with the group, says it is an issue to be resolved regionally through dialog.The Lebanon vote is to be followed on May 12 by an Iraqi election that is also set to underline Iran's reach, with one of three pro-Tehran Shi'ite leaders set to become prime minister.</s>Female supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah hold flags listening to their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as he speaks on a video screen in Beirut, Lebanon February 16, 2018

Iran said on Monday it respected the votes cast by people in Lebanon's parliamentary election, where unofficial results showed Iran-backed Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats, state TV reported.

"Lebanon is an independent country ... Iran respects (the) vote of Lebanese people ... We are ready to work with ... the government elected by the majority," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state TV.

Hezbollah supporters were were seen celebrating in the street of Beirut Sunday night and were reportedly chanting ‘Beirut has become Shia.’ Photos also emerged on Twitter of a Hezbollah flag planted on the statue of Rafic Hariri, the father of the current Lebanese prime minister and a former prime minister who was assassinated in 2005 allegedly by Hezbollah operatives.

Hezbollah's gains in the Lebanese election on Sunday show that the state is indistinguishable from the Iranian-backed Shi'ite group and that Israel should not distinguish between them in any future war, an Israeli security cabinet minister said.

"Hezbollah = Lebanon," Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a rightist in the Israel's conservative coalition government, said on Twitter on Monday.

"The State of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory."
In official results, Hezbollah and allied parties win a slight majority of seats in Parliament.