It seems like Syrian conflict is about to widen to engulf the entire region. On one side, Hizbollah and Iran & other side Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Hezbollah Leader Vows to Fight on Behalf of Syrian Regime - WSJ.com
By NOUR MALAS
BEIRUT—The chief of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite party backing the Syrian regime in a battle against rebels, vowed on Saturday to fight until victory—entrenching his party’s commitment to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a war that has increasingly engulfed neighboring Lebanon.
In what he called a “wholly new phase that has begun now,” Hassan Nasrallah said the battle against rebels in Syria was critical for protecting Lebanon and the broader region.
In a scheduled speech, given annually to commemorate Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, Mr. Nasrallah discouraged Lebanese from fighting one another over Syria on Lebanese territory, telling them to instead “go fight over Syria in Syria.” His comments, delivered with what he called “necessary frankness,” came as Hezbollah fighters continued to wage battle in the Syrian town of Qusair and Lebanese factions sparred inside Lebanon.
The speech illustrated how quickly and deeply entangled in Syria’s war the Shiite party has become. It comes a week into a major Syrian army and Hezbollah offensive in Qusair, a Syrian rebel stronghold some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Lebanese border—a high-stakes fight for strategic territory that is Hezbollah’s most overt display yet of support for the Syrian regime.
The day before the speech, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman had cautioned the Shiite group over its intervention in Syria, suggesting it was a “confessional” fight that wasn’t in Lebanon’s national interest. “The resistance is more noble and more important than anything, and should not get bogged down in the sands of dissension, whether in Syria or Lebanon,” Mr. Sleiman said in a statement on Friday, calling Hezbollah by its common party slogan, “the resistance.”
In his speech, delivered as usual by video link to crowds of supporters, Mr. Nasrallah portrayed the war in Syria as a struggle for the future of the Middle East, mainly against extremist Sunni militias backed by Israel and the West. He made little explicit reference to Qusair—a battle that has put Hezbollah’s military capabilities in the spotlight—but said it was clear that “takfiris,” the extremists, were the dominant force among rebel fighters there.
Hezbollah’s role in Syria, which was significantly ramped up at the start of the year, has become controversial in Lebanon, where some Shiites are wary of sending fighters to a neighboring country of fellow Muslims—a fight that strays from the party’s original mandate against its main regional enemy, Israel.
But Hezbollah has increasingly painted the battle in Syria as an existential one against extremists intent on eliminating Shiites and all others. On Saturday, Mr. Nasrallah said the Syrian rebellion had radically transformed in recent months, drawing his party in over the past few weeks to defend Syrian towns along the Lebanese border that risked giving extremists, and Israel, a pathway to invade Lebanon.
He boasted that so many young Hezbollah members have flocked to join the battle, the party has had to turn them away. “We are in no need to announce jihad,” he said, as hundreds of supporters chanted and pumped their fists in the air. “You will find tens of thousands of jihadis heading to those fronts.”
Before the broadcast of the speech, Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television broadcast an update on the battle in Qusair, where it has a reporter on the ground. The footage showed plumes of black smoke rising from between residential blocs amid artillery booms.
Al-Manar reported Syrian army gains in the city’s east, west and south. It said its correspondent reported that the army took over Dab’a Airport, a base just north of Qusair—a report that rebels disputed.
“Hezbollah hasn’t advanced one inch,” said an activist inside the city, reached by Skype. Rebels say dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in a weeklong street war that has challenged their ability to hold territory in an urban environment they don’t know very well.
The accounts of the fight from rebels, as well as the estimated number of Hezbollah fighters killed, couldn’t be independently confirmed. Hezbollah officials have declined to comment on the battle.
