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 Israeli army issued an evacuation order on Sunday for residents of a southern Beirut neighborhood, the first such warning in almost a month, in anticipation of a possible strike on what it says are Hezbollah targets - further testing a fragile ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced on Sunday that they will jointly settle Syria’s outstanding debt to the World Bank, amounting to approximately $15 million.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organisation said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
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