Hezbollah
has lost more than 300 of its people since the organization has gotten involved
in the Syrian civil war. It currently operates in three main sites, after its
successful assistance of the Al-Qusayr campaign: the eastern rural area of
Damascus (Al-Ghouta al-Sharqiyya), the Al-Qalamoun mountain range,
north of Damascus, which runs along the Syrian-Lebanese border (the Homs –
Damascus route), and the grave of Al-Set Zaynab, south of Damascus.
The reasons for Hezbollah’s involvement in
the Syrian crisis look very obvious to the common outsider, as the organization
has a strong strategic alliance with the Syrian regime since Hezbollah was
formed in 1982. Yet, senior officers of Hezbollah said to the Kuwaiti newspaper
Al-Rai that Hezbollah is fighting in Syria for other reasons, and not
necessarily to protect the Syrian regime and President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah,
they said, protects Lebanon and seeks to gain control over the area bordering
on the Syrian-Lebanese border (the Al-Qalamoun mountain range), out of which
organizations affiliated with Al-Qaeda (such as Al-Nusra Front) operate. It also
has a sectarian-religious aspect, as Hezbollah is committed to continue
defending the grave of Al-Set Zaynab, which is under constant attack by
the rebels, who are aware of the site’s religious significance.
Nonetheless, Hezbollah’s involvement in
Syria, regardless its reasons, causes a few challenges to the organization in
Lebanon. First and foremost, the Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, which is the local
franchise of Syria's Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist rebel movement, has conducted six
major suicide bombing at the heart of Hezbollah’s
territory – the Dahiyeh in Beirut. The rebels had recently warned Hezbollah
that attacks on their controlled areas will continue until Lebanon releases
Sunni Islamist prisoners and the organization withdraws from Syria, which means
a declaration of war.
Second, the March 14 alliance members keep
calling Hezbollah to leave Syria, since its involvement causes a blood-bath inside
Lebanon as well, between supporters and opponents of Hezbollah and the Syrian
regime, mostly in, but not limited to, the Tripoli area,. The protests have
reached all over Lebanon, and their end is nowhere in sight.
Politically, however, Hezbollah’s situation
remains complicated as it was before. Hezbollah’s party, Loyalty to the
Resistance Bloc, is still the most influential party in Lebanon. The
inability of Tammam Salam, the designated Prime Minister, to form a government,
was essentially, Hezbollah’s fault, as the organization insisted on
participating in a government based on 8-8-8 formula, with a veto power on
vital issues. Their demands were refused by the March 14 alliance until
recently, when the parties reached a possible agreement, which is yet to be
signed due to recent events in Lebanon.
Loyalty is appreciated and strategic
alliances even more so. Hezbollah had done for Syria more than any other would
have. However, the organization has paid too high a price for its involvement
and should understand its place in Lebanon is far more important than the war
in Syria. In Syria, the organization is not fighting for its survival, but that
of President Assad. In Lebanon, it is a matter of the organization’s survival.
In Lebanon, it is more than a resistance organization, or a terrorist group –
it's both a political party as well as a welfare organization, with a wide
infrastructure that might fall apart if Al-Nusra keeps hunting Hezbollah as it
does today.
Should Hezbollah fall on its sward for the
Syrian regime? Should the organization commit suicide for a strategic alliance?
Hassan Nasrallah needs to understand that Hezbollah must survive, and survival
is nowhere near the Syrian civil war.
All
data was taken from Lebanese press and http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/
