{"id":119620,"date":"2025-03-05T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119620"},"modified":"2025-03-05T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T08:48:34","slug":"05-00-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119620","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah Admits Fall of Assad Regime in Syria a \u2018Major Strategic Loss\u2019 for Terror Group"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Hezbollah Admits Fall of Assad Regime in Syria a \u2018Major Strategic Loss\u2019 for Terror Group<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ailin Vilches Arguello<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Funeral ceremony for former Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, outskirts of Beirut, Feb. 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS\/Thaier Al-Sudani<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Hezbollah views the\u00a0collapse of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime<\/a>\u00a0in Syria as \u201ca major strategic loss\u201d that weakens its efforts against Israel, according to a co-founder of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group, which continues to face mounting challenges after losing key leaders in its latest war with the Jewish state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the political transformation which took place in Syria was a major strategic loss \u2014 we can\u2019t deny that,\u201d Ali Fayyad, a long-time senior Hezbollah official who also serves as a member of the Lebanese parliament, told the\u00a0Responsible Statecraft<\/em>, an online magazine of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank, in a new interview published on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month,\u00a0Ahmed al-Sharaa became Damascus\u2019s transitional president<\/a>\u00a0after leading a rebel campaign that ousted long-time Syrian leader Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an announcement by the military command that led the offensive against Assad, Sharaa was given the authority to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional period and to suspend the country\u2019s constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The collapse of Assad\u2019s regime was the result of an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa\u2019s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur previous ties with the [Assad] regime are linked to one specific issue related to the necessity of establishing a balance against Israel in a complicated regional struggle,\u201d Fayyad said. \u201cOur ties with the regime were strictly tied to these considerations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With the fall of the Assad regime, Shi\u2019ite Hezbollah not only lost its main transit route for weapons deliveries from Iran via Syria but also must now contend with new leadership in Damascus aligned with the same Sunni extremist groups it once fought to support Assad.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interview, Fayyad explained that Hezbollah is not looking for trouble with Syria\u2019s new leadership but rather supports Lebanon\u2019s stance on maintaining balanced relations between the two countries. However, he also emphasized the importance of protecting minorities, respecting freedoms, and preventing the emergence of another\u00a0oppressive regime in Syria<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also keeping an eye on the stance of the new leadership in Syria towards Israel,\u201d Fayyad said. \u201cThis stance is confusing and poses a lot of questions, as Israel infiltrated and occupied Syrian territory without any stance taken from the new leadership. This is something strange from every legal and political standpoint which you wouldn\u2019t find in any other country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Following Assad\u2019s fall in December,\u00a0Israel moved troops into a buffer zone<\/a>\u00a0along the Syrian border to secure a military position to prevent terrorists from launching attacks against the Jewish state. The previously demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War.<\/span><\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s new government has called for Israel to withdraw its forces but has used a noticeably less hostile tone than Hezbollah or its backers in Iran when speaking about the Jewish state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that Israel would not tolerate the presence of HTS or any forces affiliated with Syria\u2019s new rulers south of Damascus and demanded the area be demilitarized.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also last month, Israel said it would\u00a0keep troops in five locations<\/a>\u00a0in southern Lebanon past a Feb. 18 ceasefire deadline for their withdrawal, as Israeli leaders sought to reassure northern residents that they can return home safely.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of\u00a0fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah<\/a>. Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from Beirut\u2019s southern border, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel\u2019s northern border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fayyad said that Lebanon has the right to use force, if needed, to put an end to the \u201cIsraeli occupation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHezbollah remains committed to resistance and considers that it is Lebanon\u2019s right to confront any Israeli aggression,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe Israelis being in five points is something which we consider to be occupation, and this gives Lebanon the right to use all possible means to liberate these occupied territories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Assad\u2019s fall, the new Syrian government has sought to\u00a0strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders<\/a>. Damascus\u2019s new diplomatic relationships reflect a distancing from its previous allies, Iran and Russia. For example, Tehran has not reopened its embassy in Syria, which was a central part of its self-described \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d against US-backed Israel, including Assad\u2019s regime and a network of terrorist proxies \u2014 primarily Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new Syrian government appears focused on reassuring the West and working to get sanctions lifted, which date back to 1979 when the US labeled Syria a state sponsor of terrorism and were significantly increased following Assad\u2019s violent response to the anti-government protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Assad regime\u2019s brutal crackdown on opposition protests in 2011 sparked the Syrian civil war, during which Syria was suspended from the Arab League for more than a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to their relationship with Washington, Fayyad said Hezbollah has no bilateral issues with the United States but emphasized that their stance is tied to \u201cthe Palestinian cause and this alignment [with Israel] which ignores human rights and the UN laws and the right of the Palestinians to self-determination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with the American administration is this issue first of all and second this intervention in the affairs of other societies and countries, and exercising unjust hegemony over international relations,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hezbollah Admits Fall of Assad Regime in Syria a \u2018Major Strategic Loss\u2019 for Terror Group Ailin Vilches Arguello Funeral ceremony for former Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, outskirts of Beirut, Feb. 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS\/Thaier Al-Sudani Hezbollah views the\u00a0collapse of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime\u00a0in Syria as \u201ca major strategic loss\u201d that weakens its efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119635,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119620\/revisions\/119635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}