Hizbollah commander - bridge with Britain

This fertile area, south of the Litani River, would be the crucial theatre for any future war with Israel. The last conflict was fought amid its rolling hills and green olive groves two years ago, claiming 1,100 Lebanese and 160 Israeli lives.

Mr Kaouk, who has led Hizbollah in the southern sector for a decade, was a key figure in that war and would be so in any new conflict. Although he has been the target of several air strikes he feels secure enough to meet in the small office. Two portraits adorn the wall behind him - one of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration behind Iran's Revolution of 1979, and the other depicting Tehran's present Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran is Hizbollah's key patron, supplying weapons and money and expecting loyalty in return. Mr Kaouk paid tribute to Persian civilisation, pointing out that it predates both the Arab and Western versions. "Iran," he said, "is the Vatican for all the Shia".

He struck a tone of moderation for a Western visitor in spite of representing an organisation whose leader has declared that if Jews "gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide".

Mr Kaouk said: "I hope that our interview will be a bridge with the British people. But Britain's support for Israel, both political and military, has left a scar on our people. In the last war, you should have seen the tears of the children here. The death of over 1,000 people is a national and humanitarian issue."

He added: "We didn't go to fight outside our land. They [the Israelis] came to us and invaded our lands. But in this war, justice has been kidnapped."

Mr Kaouk's summary of recent history is not reliable. In fact, Hizbollah started the war of 2006 by striking inside Israeli territory to kill three soldiers and kidnap two. Then it fired missiles at Israeli towns, provoking a draconian response.

Mr Kaouk, however, said Hizbollah was "always in a defensive situation and not on the attack". This overlooks its attacks on civilian targets worldwide, including the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which left 85 dead in 1994.

More accurately, Mr Kaouk, who is 45, pointed out that Hizbollah was founded in reaction to Israel's first invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and its struggle arose from resisting that US-backed onslaught.

"All the history of Israel is war and we can't sit and do nothing and place our hands in cold water," he said. "Israel bombed Syria a few months ago and they are threatening to bomb Iran and they are bombing the Palestinians and threatening Lebanon as well. And all the time, the international community applauds Israel."

But Hizbollah's forces also threaten Lebanon. The Shia radicalism embodied by the "Party of God" – the literal translation of Hizbollah – is hugely divisive in a country where most of the population are either Christian, Sunni or Alawite.

Using brute force and genuine popular support among the Shias, who are the largest single group among Lebanon's four million people, Hizbollah has become the most powerful factor in the country's politics. Together with its allies, it now controls one third of Lebanon's 30-member cabinet, enough to veto any government decision.

In effect, Hizbollah is a state within a state, commanding its own army and wielding almost total control over its heartland around Tyre in the south.

In May, its gunmen fought in Beirut after Fouad Siniora, the beleaguered prime minister, tried to sack a senior Hizbollah official at Beirut Airport and close down the group's private telephone network.

But Mr Kaouk said: "We are getting weapons to face a foreign enemy and not for any internal purpose."