In spite of his modest title of labour minister and his spartan office in a poor neighbourhood of Beirut, Mohammed Fneish speaks with an authority bordering on overconfidence, an attitude that testifies to the power of Hizbollah, the militant Shia group, in Lebanon.

Mr Fneish, a senior party official who sports a stubble beard and has a penetrating gaze, says the “American project” in the Middle East has been defeated since Hizbollah bloodied Israel in a month-long war in 2006.