File image.
Hezbollah on April 3 condemned what it called a United States-Israeli “barbaric aggression” against Syria, Yemen, the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon.
In a statement, the group said that recent attacks on the countries were a part of a broader open war waged by the “American-Zionist axis of evil” against the region’s people, destabilizing countries, violating their sovereignty, and depleting their resources in an attempt to impose U.S. hegemony and serve Israeli interests.
Hezbollah also emphasized that Israel’s repeated strikes and incursions in Syria were aimed at weakening the Syrian state and preventing its recovery, calling it a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty.
The group went on to commended the resilience of the Syrian people, citing the recent Israeli incursion, which resulted in casualties, as proof of Syria’s continued dedication to resisting occupation.
Overnight, an intense wave of Israeli strikes hit military sites near the Syrian capital, Damascus, as well as in the central governorates of Hama and Homs, including two air bases and a research facility, killing at least four people. Clashes also broke out in the southern governorate of Daraa when locals took up arms to stop an Israeli incursion. At least nine were killed there.
Hezbollah in the same statement denounced the “persistent U.S. aggression” and the “humanitarian atrocities” committed against the Yemeni people. The group said that these actions were aimed at pressuring Yemen to abandon its support for Gaza.
Hezbollah also condemned the ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestine, particularly Gaza, noting the “continued genocide” and displacement efforts happening under the eyes of the international community.
“The continued genocide and forced displacement, carried out under the watchful eyes of an indifferent international community, demonstrate the enemy’s failure to break the will of the Palestinian resistance and the unyielding spirit of its people,” the statement reads.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah pointed to repeated Israeli attacks and ongoing U.S. pressure, which it said seeks to provide cover for Israeli crimes and impose its conditions through envoys acting on behalf of the Zionist entity.
Hezbollah warned that this dangerous escalation places the entire region at a critical juncture, necessitating unity among its nations to counter these existential threats.
“The equation is clear: either confrontation or submission to the enemy’s schemes, which seek nothing less than to subjugate the region and dominate its people and resources,” the statement declared.
The group reaffirmed its full solidarity with Syria, Yemen, and the Gaza Strip, urging all free nations to raise their voices against these crimes.
Hezbollah took heavy losses in the last confrontation with Israel, which broke out as a result of the war on Gaza. Since a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. came into effect in Lebanon last November, the group has largely refrained from responding to Israel.
In December, the group took another large blow when its close ally Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled his country following a large-scale offensive by rebels. The group’s main supply lines were effectively cut with the collapse of the regime in Syria.
Hezbollah backed Assad against the rebels, including the Islamist group of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the final offensive, since the outbreak of the war in Syria.
Nevertheless, since the fall of the regime, the group has stated its support for the emerging Islamist-led government in Syria.
Even when a government crackdown claimed the lives of more than 1,600 civilians, mostly members of the Shiite Alawite religious minority, last March Hezbollah didn’t intervene and voiced its respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
While the recent statement addressed escalation all over the Middle East, it was, without a doubt, especially directed towards Syria.
Hezbollah apparently sees the recent Israeli escalation against the country as a chance for rapprochement that could possibly reopen its supply routes.
Meanwhile, the Islamists ruling Syria, who are mainly made up from the ranks of the now dissolved HTS, have repeatedly slammed Hezbollah, even going as far as accusing the group of attacking government troops on the border with Lebanon earlier this year.
While Syria’s new rulers initially hoped that their tough stance against Hezbollah and Iran would grant them serious political, economic and military support from Gulf states and the West, none of these hopes have materialized yet.
Even Turkey’s ability and willingness to support the new government in Syria was put in question by Israel’s recent attacks on the country, which were meant to deter Ankara.
If Israel continues to escalate against Syria, the government will have either to compromise to the point of weakening its own Islamist structure, or it could make a shift towards Hezbollah and Iran. After all, both sides share a Islam-based ideology, and the Sunni Hamas Movement, among the first to support the uprising in Syria, is one of the key allies of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, Iran and the rest of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” could provide the Syrian government with substantial support, especially militarily. Such an alliance could pose an even larger threat to Israel than the one that existed before the fall of the Assad regime.
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