Skip to content

Cart

Your cart is empty

Article: Hezbollah will not send fighters to help Assad in Syria for now, sources say

Hezbollah will not send fighters to help Assad in Syria for now, sources say

Hezbollah will not send fighters to help Assad in Syria for now, sources say

PHOTO CAPTION: Hezbollah members take part in a military exercise during a media tour organized for the occasion of Resistance and Liberation Day, in Aaramta, Lebanon May 21, 2023. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese armed group Hezbollah does not currently intend to send fighters to northern Syria to support the Syrian army there, three sources familiar with the Iran-backed group's thinking told Reuters on Monday.

An alliance of rebel fighters launched a surprise offensive last week on northern Syria, sweeping through government-held territory in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib and forcing government troops out of Aleppo city in the biggest setback for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in years.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday Syria's military was capable of confronting the rebels but "resistance groups will help and Iran will provide any support needed", referring to the regional militia groups Tehran backs.

The sources told Reuters that Hezbollah had not yet been asked to intervene, adding that the group was not ready to send forces to Syria at this stage following more than a year of hostilities against the Israeli military, including two months of heavy ground fighting in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was closely monitoring developments and stands ready to assist the Syrian government in any way possible, but that Tehran had no current plans to provide military support, including stationing military personnel on the ground.

"In meetings with Syrian officials, there was no request from for the deployment of Iranian military personnel, said the official.

When asked about Hezbollah, a regional official close to Tehran said: "Tehran is in contact with Hezbollah, and no, there has not been any such request from the Syrian government so far."

As many as 4,000 Hezbollah fighters may have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since Oct. 2023, according to a source familiar with the group's operations.

Israeli airstrikes also increasingly targeted the group's fighters in Syria, where Hezbollah had intervened to help Assad's forces recapture territory starting in 2013, alongside his allies Iran and Russia.

One of the sources said the group had pulled senior officers responsible for Aleppo out of northern Syria to help fight a ground war against Israel.

Two other sources, one Lebanese and one Syrian, said Hezbollah had pulled back forces from Syria in mid-October, when the fighting with Israel along the border intensified.



(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily in Beirut and Parisa Hafezi in Geneva; Editing by Alex Richardson and Timothy Heritage)

MORE FROM THE

OAF NATION NEWSROOM

Russia, Belarus to sign “landmark” security pact, Russian news agency says

Russia, Belarus to sign “landmark” security pact, Russian news agency says

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, will sign a landmark security pact on Friday that reflects global geopolitical changes, Russian state news ag...

Read more
Iraq will not be just a “spectator” in Syria, prime minister says

Iraq will not be just a “spectator” in Syria, prime minister says

Iraq will not act as a mere spectator in Syria where it believes groups and sects are victims of ethnic cleansing, Iraq's prime minister said on Tuesday, according to a readout from his office of a...

Read more
#3 Liquid error (layout/theme line 179): Could not find asset snippets/back-in-stock-helper.liquid