Syria and the Arming of Hezbollah

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Syria denies that it recently transferred missiles to Hezbollah, and that is its right, or a matter of diplomatic art — so be it. But we know for certain that Hezbollah would never have risen to its feet and lifted its head high were it not for Syria’s persistence and its support through every possible means and method: from providing intelligence information, to supplying missiles and bombs, to training facilities and logistics, and so on.

Syria does not extend a favor to Hezbollah; rather, it is fulfilling its national, religious, and humanitarian duty in supporting a genuine resistance that managed to expel the Zionist occupation from South Lebanon in the year 2000 without conceding it a single demand, and that thwarted Israel in its 2006 war. It is Syria’s duty, as it is the duty of every Arab and every Muslim, to rush to support Arab and Islamic resistance organizations and factions against aggression, occupation, and colonialism, in pursuit of liberation, independence, and progress. And if certain Arab and Islamic states have fallen short of doing their duty, Syria has never once ceased to provide the necessary support, within its means, to Hezbollah. And despite its modest financial capabilities, it has offered various forms of assistance to Palestinian factions that adopt resistance as their approach.

There are those who say the Golan front is silent, and that Syria simply wants to entangle others in fighting Israel on its behalf. In truth, Syria does not force anyone to fight Israel, nor does it work to entangle anyone in this matter, or push anyone toward fulfilling his national duty toward the holy land and the nation, or encourage anyone to enter a battle he does not want. Syria supports whoever wants to fight Israel, whoever wants to resist for the sake of liberation, and it has never once pressured Hezbollah or anyone else to adopt resistance. In this wretched age, when some who claim to champion the cause — Arabs and Palestinians alike — ally themselves with the enemies, may God reward Syria, which provides support for the resistance and refuses to bow to all the pressure directed against it to stop providing that support.

…cooperated with Israel to pressure Syria by every means of enticement and intimidation, in order to pull it away from Hezbollah and pursue it, but all this pressure failed, and Syria’s determination to keep providing whatever support lay within its capacity only grew firmer.

It is not only Syria’s duty to provide support to Hezbollah and to everyone who wishes to resist the occupation — it is also Syria’s right, a right embodied in the following:

Syria is an inseparable part of the land of Greater Syria (Bilad al-Sham), and the responsibility a son of Aleppo, Latakia, or Deir ez-Zor bears toward Palestine, the Golan, and South Lebanon is exactly the same as the responsibility borne by a son of Nablus, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Tripoli, Sidon, Karak, or Irbid. And Syria is an inseparable part of the Arab homeland, bearing national and religious responsibilities toward this nation;

There is land occupied from Syria since 1967, and it has the right to work to liberate it, and to support anyone who helps it toward that liberation;

Syria faces continuous aggression from Israel, and constant threats from the United States aimed at pulling it away from the Party and halting its support for the resistance, and given this, it is in Syria’s interest to build strategic relationships capable of developing its deterrent capacity, and of forcing the enemy to think, again and again, about the risks of continuing its aggression;

And if we are to speak in terms of what is called international law, Syria has the right to carry out various military and non-military actions in order to liberate its land.

It is not the United States’s place to ask Syria about supplying Hezbollah with weapons — rather, it is Syria’s right to ask the United States about supplying Israel with weapons. Syria works to liberate Arab land, while America works to keep Arab land under occupation; Syria is a state that has been attacked, its land seized by force, while Israel is an aggressor state that violates every norm and every charter; Syria wants liberation, while Israel insists on occupation and extortion.

It is America that violates the rights of peoples and states in broad daylight, and it is America that shamelessly demands that others not defend themselves. Syria and Hezbollah have every right to possess devastating weapons, including nuclear weapons; they have every right to liberate the land; and it is their duty to provide every form of support to the Palestinian people in order to liberate their land and reclaim the entirety of their established national rights.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “سوريا وتسليح حزب الله” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.