Lebanon's Hezbollah views events in Syria as a "major, dangerous and new transformation", a senior Hezbollah politician said on Monday, the Iran-backed group's first reaction to the toppling of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
Rebel fighters sit on vehicles, after rebels seized the capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 9, 2024. Reuters/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanon's Hezbollah views events in Syria as a "major, dangerous and new transformation", a senior Hezbollah politician said on Monday, the Iran-backed group's first reaction to the toppling of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah played a major part propping up Assad through years of war in Syria, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
His downfall has stripped Hezbollah of a vital ally along Lebanon's eastern border. Assad-ruled Syria long served as a vital conduit for Iran to supply weapons to the Shi'ite Islamist Hezbollah.
"What is happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation, and how and why what happened requires an evaluation, and the evaluation is not done on the podiums," Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement.
Syrian armed groups led by the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept into Damascus on Sunday, seizing the capital and forcing Assad to leave for Russia.
Israel dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah during more than a year of hostilities, which began when the Lebanese group opened fire on Oct. 8, 2023 in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza. A ceasefire in Lebanon took effect on Nov. 27.
Reporting by Laila Bassam
The Christian community of Damascus, still mourning a suicide bombing that killed 25 people in June, is celebrating Christmas under heavy security as uncertainty looms over Syria’s political future.
Syria's foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss expanding military, political and economic cooperation, with a focus on strategic collaboration in defence industries, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military would never fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip for security reasons and that a civilian-military army unit would be established in the Palestinian enclave.
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