According to Ali Fayyad, the new Syrian leadership’s position on Israel “is confusing and poses a lot of questions, as Israel infiltrated and occupied Syrian territory without any stance taken from the new leadership”.
Hezbollah sees the change of power in Syria as a big “strategic loss,” tilting the balance of regional anti-Israeli unions, Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah co-founder and a member of the Lebanese parliament, said.
“There’s no doubt that the political transformation which took place in Syria was a major strategic loss, we can’t deny that,” he told the Responsible Statecraft portal.
“Our previous ties with the (Bashar al-Assad) regime are linked to one specific issue related to the necessity of establishing a balance against Israel in a complicated regional struggle,” he said. “Our ties with the regime were strictly tied to these considerations.”
According to Fayyad, the new Syrian leadership’s position on Israel “is confusing and poses a lot of questions, as Israel infiltrated and occupied Syrian territory without any stance taken from the new leadership.” “This is something strange from every legal and political standpoint which you wouldn’t find in any other country,” he emphasized.
Armed opposition units in Syria launched a large-scale offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates in late November 2024. On December 8, they entered Damascus, while President Bashar Assad stepped down and fled the country.
On the same day, the Israeli army officially announced the deployment of forces in the demilitarized zone separating the Golan Heights, thus violating international consensus on the status of the region.
Later in the day, the Israeli military took control over the eastern part of Jabal Al-Sheikh (Also known as Mount Hermon-PC) that lies within Syria as part of the Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the new aggression on Syria was a purely defensive step to thwart what he described as potential threats from Syria’s territory.
Below are selected highlights from the interview.
On Lebanon and Israel:
“The Israelis being in five points is something which we consider to be occupation, and this gives Lebanon the right to use all possible means to liberate these occupied territories. This is the exact same official Lebanese stance because the meeting of the three leaders (the president, prime minister, and parliament speaker) in Baabda (the Lebanese presidential palace) announced that the Israeli presence in this area is occupation, and Lebanon has the right to use all possible means to liberate these territories.”
On Lebanon’s Role and Hezbollah’s Arms:
“Hezbollah remains committed to resistance and considers that it is Lebanon’s right to confront any Israeli aggression. However, this current stage, given its unique nature and the shifts that happened, perhaps requires a different approach. For example, the Lebanese state has stepped forward to manage the situation against the Israeli enemy, and Hezbollah accepted this role and is giving the state the opportunity to take charge.”
On Syria and Israel:
“We are keeping an eye on the stance of the new leadership in Syria towards Israel. This stance is confusing and poses a lot of questions, as Israel infiltrated and occupied Syrian territory without any stance taken from the new leadership. This is something strange from every legal and political standpoint, which you wouldn’t find in any other country.”
On Hezbollah’s Resistance:
“Hezbollah openly operates in Lebanon to liberate territories occupied by the Israeli enemy. This right is enshrined in the laws of the United Nations and is one of the basic principles concerning the rights of nations and human societies. We also have the right to defend ourselves against Israeli aggressions, which have destroyed 200,000 Lebanese homes and killed thousands.”
On US and Israel:
“The problem with the American administration is this issue first of all, and second, this intervention in the affairs of other societies and countries, and exercising unjust hegemony over international relations. The American armed support to Israel, which used its weapons to destroy Lebanese homes and kill our Secretary General (Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah), is a major concern. The Israelis were rearmed recently with 9,000-pound bombs, the heaviest non-nuclear bombs in history.”
On Syria’s Strategic Loss:
“There’s no doubt that the political transformation which took place in Syria was a major strategic loss, we can’t deny that. Our previous ties with the regime were linked to the necessity of establishing a balance against Israel in a complicated regional struggle, whereby Israel receives all forms of international support. We don’t support any kind of oppression, corruption, or sectarian practices, but our ties with the regime were strictly tied to these considerations.”
On Lebanon’s Government and Resistance:
“Hezbollah calls on the government and the other factions to discuss the outstanding issues domestically via dialogue. We think that this Lebanese government deserves to be given an opportunity to prove itself and to show that it is able to fulfill the promise made in the Cabinet manifesto, which prioritizes liberating the land and defending the people.”
On US Interference in Lebanon:
“The American stances ignore the will of a large segment of the Lebanese people and a parliamentary block representing Hezbollah elected democratically. We fear that the American goal is for there to be confrontation between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah and its supporters. This is something very dangerous for Lebanon, and we want to avoid it.”
(TASS, PC)
