Report: Hezbollah considering retreat from Syria
Reports from Lebanon suggest Shiite group consulting with Lebanese president regarding possibility of retreat. Hezbollah denies: 'We'll retreat after we finish all we set out to do there'
Hezbollah is considering withdrawing its forces from Syria, Lebanese news website Naharnet reported Thursday, citing the Al Joumhouria newspaper.
According to reports, Hezbollah members are holding consultations with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman regarding the option of withdrawing the terorr group's forces from Syria.
Related stories:
- Hezbollah gambles all in Syria
- Hezbollah suffers blow as security forces enter Dahiyeh
- Lebanese army deploys in Hezbollah Beirut stronghold
It seems that the consultations are meant to see if the situation in Lebanon is concurrent with retreating at this point. Suleiman himself expressed in the past his resistance to the participation of Hezbollah members in the civil war in Syria.
Still, a source affiliated with Hezbollah stressed that any talk of retreat is simply analysis and nothing more. "Hezbollah is still in Syria and it won't retreat until after the moves are made that brought the organization to make the decision to engage in battles there," the source said.
Hezbollah entered the Syrian front to prevent the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The involvement of the terror organization in Syria has brought on numerous accomplishments on the ground, such as the hold on Qusayr.
Still, Hezbollah lost many fighters and suffered blows to its home district, among others. In mid August a car bomb went off in the biggest district of the organization in Lebanon, Dahiyeh, which took dozens of lives. The Dahiyeh explosion brought the Lebanese army to deploy in the Hezbollah-controlled area.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressed significant support for Assad and vowed he would never abandon him. In a speech in May, he said, "Syria is the backbone of the resistance and the resistance cannot just sit and wait when someone wants to break its backbone. If Syria falls under the hands of the US, Israel or their pawns, the resistance will be under siege and Israel will enter Lebanon and enforce its rules. If Syria falls to them, Palestine will be lost."
US continues training rebels
Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to aid the rebels fighting Assad's regime. The Washington Post quoted major sources in the US as saying that the CIA has sent teams to secret bases in Jordan in recent weeks to aid the rebels. Sources say the CIA is aiding with warfare and training before the rebels return to Syria.
The sources mentioned that the CIA is operating under a defined mission form the White House attempting to find a political solution to the Syria crisis, but still wants to help rebels in Syria maintain areas they hold.
However, sources say the plan is not very broad, and stress that only several hundreds of rebels will be trained every month in addition to the 1,000 who were trained during the year.
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
