After more than two weeks of an unremitting land and air attack by Assad’s forces supported by Hezbollah, the outgunned rebels, who were deprived of reinforcements, had to withdraw from Qusayr.
In fact, the rebels were able to repel the regime’s troops for a few weeks but once Hezbollah made common cause with the Syrian regime matters changed on the ground. The rebels could not withstand the ongoing onslaught mounted by Assad’s forces in tandem with Hezbollah’s fighters.
The Syrian official propaganda machine presented the battle over Qusayr as a game changer. Explicit in all statements made by the Syrian government and its allies in Iran and Lebanon is the desperate need to transform the military gains in Qusayr as a turning point in the whole conflict.
Unwittingly, Hezbollah’s active involvement in Qusayr changed the rules of the game. An increasing number of people across the Middle East see the conflict after Qusayr differently. The fault lines in Syria as well as in the region are sectarian. This new conception of the war over Syria will be risky for both Hassan Nassrallah and Bashar Assad. Seen in this way, their attempt to project what happened in Qusayr as a victory is expected to back fire.
For years, Hezbollah was seen as a legitimate organization and was revered in the Arab region for its resistance against Israel. In 2006, Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill for 33 days. The sympathizers for the party had increased since the war. Now things have changed. For a majority of the Arabs, Hezbollah has turned its weapons on fellow Arabs and Muslims. The resentment and bitterness of Hezbollah’s deeds in Qusayr are ubiquitous.
Renowned scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, this week slammed Iran and Hezbollah for supporting Assad in his war against the rebels and dubbed the party as the party of devils. The overt entry of Hezbollah in the war in Syria and the statements of Sheikh Qaradawi have sharpened sectarian divisions in the region.
Apparently, the reckless decision of Hezbollah to enter the war was made without taking into account how such a decision would be perceived. Many feel that the Sunni Arab governments may step up weapons supplies to the rebels to counterbalance the overt intervention of Hezbollah, Iranian fighters, and Iraqi Shiite forces operating in Syria.
Far from being a victory, the explicit involvement of Shiite fighters from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon has only opened a new chapter in battle over Syria. Lebanese feel that their country may be affected by the most recent confrontation in Qusayr.
The founder of the hard line Salafi movement in Lebanon, Sheik Islam Al-Shahal support the idea of fighting back against “Iran’s control of Lebanon through Hezbollah.”
In his words, “The (Iranian) occupation of Lebanon must be confronted by preparing every Sunni family and every young Sunni man to defend his faith, his home and his honor. We are clearly targeted.”
It is not as if the sectarian alliances in the region is a new phenomenon. Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution against the regime authoritarianism, there has been sectarian dimension of the struggle. Yet, it was Hezbollah who framed its intervention on the side of Assad in sectarian terms.
Hassan Nassrallah touted his fighters killed in Qusayr as martyrs for Sayida Zeinab, a tomb revered by Shiites. In his last speech, Hassan Nassrallah made it perfectly clear that his fighters were sent to fight “takfiris.”
Creating sectarian fault lines in Syria is the most dangerous development. It remains to be seen how this development will play out in the future. Yet, despite the temporary military gains, Hezbollah has lost its reputation among the Arabs. Until recently, Yusuf Qaradawi called for better ties between the two major sects in Islam: Sunni and Shiite. He also praised Hezbollah for its fight against Israel. In his last sermon on Friday, Qaradawi issued the strongest condemnation yet of Hezbollah dubbing it as the party of Satan.
In brief, Assad’s “victory” in Qusayr has not paved the way for an end to the crisis but rather has triggered yet a different kind of sectarian conflict that he cannot win in the end. The dominant feeling among Sunni Arabs is that practical steps should be taken to salvage the Sunni Arabs of Syria from a concerted Iranian-Hezbollah-Iraqi-Alawite onslaught.
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A phony victory!
A phony victory!
