Doha (Reuters) – U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said the situation in Syria, where rebels are pushing a rapid advance that threatens President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power, is creating a new weakness for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and for Iran.
The US envoy, who brokered a US-brokered ceasefire deal in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that took effect on November 27, said he believed Hezbollah was not not yet eliminated but rather weakened.
Iran has supported Assad in Syria's long-running civil war, sending allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militias to bolster the Syrian army.
Hochstein, speaking at a policy conference in Doha, said the situation in Syria would mean it would be more difficult for Iran to supply weapons to Hezbollah there, adding that Iran appeared to be withdrawing its support for Syria, without specifying how.
Iran said it was removing families from its embassy, but denied a report from New York Times (NYSE:) that it was withdrawing military personnel.
Hochstein added that Hezbollah “may not be strong enough to fight Israel or support Assad, but it doesn't take a lot of strength to be a dominant presence in Lebanon, so you can also be weakened and still be strong in same time when it comes to the Lebanese context.
Hezbollah sent a small number of “supervision forces” from Lebanon into Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing the strategic city of Homs, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Friday.
The Syrian army's defeats last week were “not a big surprise,” Hochstein said, pointing to the army's limited power compared to the events of the country's civil war 13 years ago, when “she had two powers (Iran and Russia) coming.” to his aid in a very strong way.”
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