HOSTAGES IN LEBANON: WHO PULLED THE STRINGS?

When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, Iran was cast out of the international community. Its nuclear program was shut down, billions in foreign assets were frozen, and France, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom all distanced themselves. Iran’s response was ruthless: the country devised a “strategy of the weak against the strong,” orchestrating the kidnapping of Western nationals with the help of its allies in Lebanon.

Held captive for years – some tortured – the hostages of Lebanon endured a living hell. Their plight mobilized every Western intelligence service, in a Beirut turned into a nest of spies amid the chaos of a civil war. How did the Iranians manipulate these abductions to get what they wanted at the negotiating table?

Through the personal accounts of hostages, never-before-heard testimonies from intelligence agents, and rare archival material, this series retraces in detail the kidnappings and releases involving four major Western nations present in Lebanon. It offers a deep dive into the geopolitics of the 1980s through today — uncovering the hidden mechanisms of a shadow conflict shaped by Iran and the network of terrorist states that aided it.