In his first speech since the fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad last week, the secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Kassem, acknowledged that the pro-Iranian group had “lost its military supply route” after his ally fled to Moscow.
Under the Assad family, Syria was the link between Hezbollah and its Iranian backer. The fall of Damascus to the opposition came at a very difficult point for the Shiite group, which suffered heavy blows during a two-month war against Israel, including the assassination of its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah. “At this stage, Hezbollah has lost its military supply route, Kassem said. But this is a detail; we can look for other ways or the old routes might be re-established”.
Hezbollah was one of the main backers of the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war. The opposition accuses it of being responsible for many crimes against civilians in battles such as that of Aleppo and Yarmouk. The Party often labelled the opposition as “terrorists”, “takfiris” and “Israeli agents”.
“Cooperate as equals”
However, during his speech, Naim Kassem called for cooperation with the “new regime” in Damascus. “We cannot judge the new forces in Syria until they stabilize and take clear positions and organize themselves”, he said. He also expressed hope that the new government should include all sectarians and ethnic groups of the Syrian society and that it would “cooperate and deal with Lebanon as its equal”.
Naim Kassem also condemned the Israeli strikes and ground incursions in Syria. “They have no reason to attack”, he noted. “We hope that the new ruling entity in Syria considers Israel as an enemy and doesn’t normalize ties with it”, he also hoped. The Hezbollah leader then concluded: “It is important to reflect on this major development in the region, and hopefully, the results will be positive for both Lebanon and Syria”.
