BEIRUT, Lebanon: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Saturday that Syria’s new rulers, who ousted Bashar al-Assad, should not establish ties with neighbouring Israel.
“We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as an enemy and not normalise relations with it,” Qassem said in a televised speech, his first public remarks since Assad’s ouster.
The alliance of Syrian groups launched their offensive on November 27, the same day that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
On Sunday, they declared Damascus had fallen, with Assad having fled the country.
Hezbollah has suffered major blows during more than a year of cross-border fighting with Israel, which the Lebanese group had initiated over Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
In late September, the clashes rapidly escalated into full-blown war.
In his speech on Saturday, Qassem maintained that the ceasefire agreement does not mean Hezbollah is required to lay down its weapons.
The deal stipulates that over a period of 60 days, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers would deploy in southern Lebanon, while Israeli military forces as well as Hezbollah withdraw from the border area — Hezbollah to the north, and Israeli troops back to their country.
Hezbollah was the only Lebanese group that refused to surrender its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, vowing to keep fighting Israel.
