The leader of "Hezbollah" Naim Qassem said that the Lebanese armed group has lost its supply route through Syria, his first comments since the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad almost a week ago by a large-scale rebel offensive, Reuters reports, quoted by BNR.
Under Assad, the Iranian-backed "Hezbollah" used Syria to import weapons and other military equipment from Iran into Lebanon - via Iraq and Syria. But on December 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist rebels seized the capital, Damascus.
"Yes, at this stage, "Hezbollah" has lost the military supply route through Syria, but this loss is a detail in the work of the resistance," Qassem said in a televised speech on Saturday, without mentioning Bashar al-Assad by name.
"A new regime may come and this route may normalize, and we may look for other ways," he added.
"Hezbollah" began intervening in Syria in 2013 to help Assad fight rebels who were trying to oust him at the time. Last week, as rebels neared Damascus, the group sent monitoring officers to oversee the withdrawal of its fighters there, Reuters noted.
More than 50 years of Assad family rule have now been replaced by a transitional caretaker government set up by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that has led the rebel offensive in the country.
Qassem said Hezbollah "cannot judge these new forces until they stabilize" and "do not take clear positions," but expressed hope that the Lebanese and Syrian people and governments can continue to cooperate.
"We also hope that this new ruling party will consider Israel an enemy and will not normalize relations with it," Qassem also said.
"Hezbollah" and Israel exchanged fire across Lebanon's southern border for nearly a year of hostilities sparked by the Gaza war before Israel launched an offensive in September, killing most of Hezbollah's top leadership, Reuters recalls.