Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, stated on Saturday that the Lebanese militant group had lost its supply route through Syria, marking his first comments since a sweeping rebel offensive led to the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad nearly a week ago.
Under Assad’s regime, Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, relied on Syria to facilitate the flow of weapons and military supplies from Iran, passing through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon. However, on December 6, anti-Assad forces seized control of the Iraq-Syria border, cutting off that crucial route. Just two days later, Islamist rebels captured the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“Yes, Hezbollah has lost the military supply route through Syria at this stage, but this loss is a detail in the resistance’s work,” Qassem said in a televised speech on Saturday, without directly mentioning Assad.
“A new regime could come and this route could return to normal, and we could look for other ways,” he added. Hezbollah began its involvement in Syria in 2013, offering support to Assad as he fought against rebels seeking to overthrow him. Last week, as rebels advanced toward Damascus, the group deployed officers to supervise the withdrawal of its fighters.
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The more than 50 years of Assad family rule have now given way to a transitional caretaker government established by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that led the rebel offensive.
Qassem commented that Hezbollah “cannot judge these new forces until they stabilise” and “take clear positions,” but expressed hope that the Lebanese and Syrian peoples and governments could continue to cooperate.
“We also hope that this new ruling party will consider Israel an enemy and not normalise relations with it. These are the headlines that will affect the nature of the relationship between us and Syria,” Qassem said.
Hezbollah and Israel had been exchanging fire along Lebanon’s southern border for nearly a year, a conflict sparked by the Gaza war, before Israel launched an offensive in September that killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.
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