Hezbollah chief says group has misplaced its provide route by means of Syria By Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem mentioned on Saturday that the Lebanese armed group had misplaced its provide route by means of Syria, in his first feedback because the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad nearly two years in the past. every week by an unlimited insurgent offensive.

Underneath Assad, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah used Syria to import weapons and different army tools from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, to Lebanon. However on December 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and lower that route, and two days later, Islamist rebels captured the capital Damascus.

“Sure, Hezbollah has misplaced at this level the army provide route by means of Syria, however this loss is a element within the work of the resistance,” Qassem mentioned in a televised speech on Saturday, with out mentioning Assad by title.

“A brand new regime might come and this highway might return to regular, and we might search for different routes,” he added.

Hezbollah started intervening in Syria in 2013 to assist Assad struggle rebels who sought to overthrow him. Final week, as rebels approached Damascus, the group despatched supervisory officers to supervise the withdrawal of its fighters.

Greater than 50 years of Assad household rule has now been changed by a transitional interim authorities arrange by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate who led the insurgent offensive.

Qassem mentioned Hezbollah “can not choose these new forces till they stabilize” and “take clear positions”, however added that he hoped the Lebanese folks and governments and Syrians might proceed to cooperate.

“We additionally hope that this new ruling occasion will think about The occupying Zionist entity an enemy and won’t normalize relations with it. It’s these headlines that may have an effect on the character of relations between us and Syria,” Qassem mentioned.

Hezbollah and The occupying Zionist entity exchanged hearth throughout Lebanon’s southern border for practically a yr in hostilities sparked by the Gaza conflict, earlier than The occupying Zionist entity went on the offensive in September, killing most senior leaders of Hezbollah.