‘THE ISRAELI entity’s occupation of additional Syrian territories and targeting of military capabilities there constitutes a dangerous and strongly condemned act of aggression,’ Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday.
‘The UN Security Council, the international community, and Arab and Islamic nations bear the responsibility of rejecting as well as ending this aggression and protecting the Syrian people during this critical and pivotal stage of their history,’ the statement noted.
‘We have always warned against Israeli ambitions across the region and resisted them to prevent the occupation from achieving its goals.
‘We have repeatedly emphasised that the aggression on Gaza is a war of extermination and a stepping stone to altering the region’s landscape and ending the Palestinian cause.’
Hezbollah stressed that the complete silence of the Arab, Islamic, and international entities about the criminal aggression on Syria, backed by unlimited American support, and the failure to take practical measures to confront this aggression and support the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, have emboldened the Zionist entity to expand its transgressions against the region.
‘All necessary steps must be taken to prevent the Israeli entity from achieving its goals. Silence or mere observation of this brutal aggression against Syria and its people is unacceptable.
‘What is happening in Syria today, both on popular and political levels, and the resulting internal and external political choices, is the exclusive right of the Syrian people, free from any external pressures or influences.
‘We hope Syria will stabilise through the choices of its people, achieve its revival, and remain firmly in the position of rejecting Israeli occupation and preventing foreign interventions in its affairs,’ the statement read.
Hezbollah affirmed it would continue to stand by Syria and its people in defending their right to shape their future and confront their enemy, the usurping Israeli entity.
The Israeli air force went ahead with striking Syria’s military capabilities, with over 300 strikes being staged in the last few days.
The Iranian Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said what happened in Syria was a ‘joint American and Zionist plot’, even though a neighbouring country (Turkey) also played a role.
‘There should be no doubt that what happened in Syria was plotted in the command rooms of the United States and Israel. We have evidence for this,’ Ayatollah Khamenei told a group of people in Tehran on Wednesday.
‘One of the neighbouring countries of Syria the Leader added – apparently referring to Turkey – also played a role, but the primary planners are the US and the Zionist regime.
Ayatollah Khamenei quashed speculations about the weakening of the resistance front after militants and Takfiri terrorists overran the Syrian capital, assuring that it will become stronger.
‘This is what the resistance is, this is what the resistance front is. The more you push, the stronger it becomes; the more you commit crimes, the more motivated it becomes.
‘The more you fight with them, the more widespread it will be, and I tell you, by the Divine Power, the domain of resistance will cover the entire region more than before.’
Ayatollah Khamenei also dismissed some analysis that the alleged weakening of the resistance front would undermine Iran.
‘That ignorant analyst, unaware of the meaning of resistance, imagines that when the resistance becomes weak, Islamic Iran will also become weak, and I say that by God’s will and power and with the permission of God Almighty, Iran is strong and powerful and will only grow more powerful.’
Ayatollah Khamenei revealed that top officials of the armed forces and military organisations had written to him, pleading to go to Lebanon because they could not bear what was happening to the country and Hezbollah under an Israeli onslaught.
‘Compare this with an army that cannot endure and flees,’ Ayatollah Khamenei, apparently referring to the Syrian army which disintegrated in the face of advancing militants.
Ayatollah Khamenei also said Iran had made all preparations to assist Syria, but the US and the Israeli regime closed all air and land routes to the Arab country.
‘We were ready even under the difficult circumstances. They came to me and said they had prepared all the means needed for the Syrians and were ready to go.
‘But the skies were closed, the land was closed. The Zionist regime and the US closed both the skies of Syria and the land routes; it was not possible to go,’ he said.
If the Syrians ‘had had a say against the enemy, the enemy could not have closed their skies, nor could it have closed their land routes and we could have helped them’, the Leader added.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the agents of the world arrogance are happy about the events in Syria, thinking that with the fall of the Syrian government, which supported the resistance, the resistance front has become incapacitated.
‘The resistance front is not a piece of hardware that breaks or collapses or is destroyed. Resistance is a faith; it is a thought; it is a heartfelt and definite decision. Resistance is a school; it is a school of belief.
‘What is the faith of a group of people does not become weak but becomes stronger with pressure.’
The Leader explained how the spread of evil motivates resistance fighters, leading to the expansion of the resistance front.
‘When they see the heinous crimes of the enemy, those who doubted whether to resist or not, will get out of doubt; they will realise that they have to stand, resist and put their lives on the line against the oppressor. This is what resistance is.’
Ayatollah Khamenei cited Hezbollah and ‘the calamity’ that befell on the Lebanese resistance with Israel’s assassination of the group’s secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
‘Hezbollah lost someone like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was this a small thing? But Hezbollah’s attacks and power of its strong fist became more intense than before. The enemy also understood this and accepted a ceasefire,’ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei touched on divisions among the militant groups in Syria, saying each group has its own agenda and all seek to stake out their own turf.
Ultimately, he said, they will be evicted from Syria by the ‘zealous Syrian youth, so will the Americans who seek to strengthen their foothold in the country’.
‘Each of these attackers has their own agenda and their goals are different. Some of them are seeking to seize land in the north of Syria or in the south. The US is looking to strengthen its foothold in the region.
‘But time will show that, God willing, none of them will achieve their goals. The occupied areas of Syria will be liberated by the zealous Syrian youth. Do not doubt that this will happen,’ he said.
‘America’s foothold will not be strong either. By God’s grace and power, the US will also be expelled from the region by the resistance front,’ Ayatollah Khamenei added.
Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran had informed Assad months ago about the advancing militant movements, corroborating recent official reports, and added that the new current in Syria would not last long.
Iran had offered assistance to Syria’s military to repel the militant offensive but noted that the Syrian armed forces were unable to mount an effective resistance themselves.
Ayatollah Khamenei said when the Syrian Arab Army failed to resist the militant offensives; Iran’s direct involvement in the battle became untenable.
The ongoing debate about the longevity of HTS-led militant groups and the stability of the new ruling entity highlights the multifaceted challenges they face, both internally and externally. These challenges do not augur well for their short-term or long-term future.