Hezbollah Vows to Defend Bashar al-Assad

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 9, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                         

                 Lebanon-based, joint Iranian and Syrian militia, Hezbollah vowed to defend Bashar al-Assad with “game-changing” Syrian weapons.  Defying Western powers, Wahhabi rebels and most of all Israel, 52-year-old Hezbollah chief Sheikh Ahmed Hassan Nasrallah, AKA “AL Shyyid,” served notice.   Israel already bombed May 4 Syrian attempts to ferry advanced Iranian weapon systems, including guided missiles to Hezbollah  While there’s no love lost between Nasrallah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjammin Netanyahu after battling each other to loggerheads in 2006, Bashar al-Assad battles for his life..  Looking at the big picture, al-Assad—a Shiite Muslim—finds himself at war with various, Saudi-based Wahhabi groups.  Ironically, it’s not the Jewish State, as many Arab propagandists say, that seeks to destroy Islam but the endless war between Sunnis and Shiites.

             When Saddam, a secular Sunni Muslim, assassinated Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadqeq al-Sadr Feb. 19, 1999, the world was treated to the internecine warfare between Sunni and Shiite Islam.  Saddam, a Baathist Arab Socialist like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, scoured Iraq from Iraq-based, rabblerousing Shiite clerics.  Today’s attempt by the Hezbollah militia to defend al-Assad represents another minority Shiite groups seeking protection from a growing Sunni insurgency.  While Israel has largely stayed out of Syria’s insurgency started March 11, 2011, Netanyahu won’t allow Hezbollah to receive Syria’s most advanced weapons.  With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad feeding Hezbollah weapons, the proxy war has already begun for the battle of Syria.  Calling in Hezbollah’s help, al-Assad now counts on Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah to defend Syria.

             Since taking office Aug. 3, 2005, Ahmadinejad has whipped up the Sunni Arab street, hijacking the Palestinian cause and promising to “wipe Israel off the map.”  Ahmadinejad’s incendiary rhetoric was designed to disguise the Shiite suspicion and hatred of Sunni Islam, largely stemming from the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia.  Supporting al-Assad shows Tehran’s fierce loyalty to the Shiite Islam. While Ahmadinejad likes to pit the battle against Sunni Islam on Jews, it’s really between Sunnis and Shiites.  “Syria will give the resistance special weapons it never had before,” said Hezbollah’s Nasrallah.  “We mean game-changing,” referring to sophisticated Irania-made guided missiles.  Nasrallah’s announcement of his intent to defend al-Assad was designed to push back at recent reports that Sunni rebel groups continue to push toward Damascus.

             Speaking at the 25th anniversary of Hezbollah’s radio station al-Nour, Nasrallah’s speech backed al-Assad on Beirut TV.  This is the strategic Syrian reaction,” said Nasrallah to combat recent unanswered Israeli bombing missions.. ”This is more important than firing a rocket or carrying out an air-strike in occupied Palestine,” referring to Israel as “occupied Palestine.  With Iranian-made Syrian arms, Hezbollah plans to lash out at Israel in the Golan Heights, a strategic mountainous plateau seized by Israel in the 1967 “Six Day War.”  “We in the Lebanese resistance declare that we stand by Syrian popular resistance and give our material and moral support to cooperate and coordinate in order to liberate the Syrian Golan,” said Nasrallah, shifting the real struggle against Sunni groups back to Israel.  Hinting at a new proxy war, Hezbollah played up the Palestinian angle to rally support.

             Meeting inside the Kremlin, Secretary of State John Kerry tried to broker a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to avert a more wide-scale proxy war in Syria.  With Hezbollah armed by Iran and Syria, al-Assad has asked the Shiite militia to come to his rescue against various Saudi-based Sunni groups.  Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi signaled his government’s interest in any joint U.S.-Russian proposal to broker a ceasefire.  What al-Zoubi won’t say is that over al-Assad’s dead body will Syria surrender to Saudi-backed Wahhabi groups.  Reviving the moribund June 30, 2012 Geneva Communique that called for rebel groups and Syian officials to lay down their arms, won’t solve the current stalemate where Whahhabi groups smell al-Assad’s blood.  Reviving the Geneva Communique, the U.S. and Russia hopes to keep the U.S. out of any future combat role in Syria.

            Kerry and Putin’s attempt to revive the Geneva Communique buys more time while the U.S. figures out whether Syria really crossed a “red line” when it comes to chemical weapons.  Russia and China don’t want the U.S. to start supplying weapons to various Wahhabi militias now seeking to topple al-Assad.  With their long business ties with al-Assad and their Tartus Navy Base on the Syrian Mediterranean Coast, Russia doesn’t want to destabilize the region by getting rid of al-Assad.  Sending Kerry to Moscow helps President Barack Obama figure out a way to push back against the pressure from House and Senate conservatives seeking to join rebel forces and topple al-Assad.  If the shoe were on the other foot, and U.S. or EU officials faced revolts in their own countries, they wouldn’t want various rebels and insurgent groups to back revolution and regime change.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.