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Hizbullah Doubles Down as its Allies in Syria Collapse
(National-Abu Dhabi) Michael Young - In a speech last Sunday, Hizbullah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, affirmed that the rebels fighting the regime of President Assad could not defeat him. As Hizbullah contemplates the possibility of a future without a Syrian ally, it has fallen back on stopgap mechanisms to ensure that it can retain its weapons in a Lebanese society that is not eager to enter into another war with Israel. The party has systematically rejected all calls for its disarmament as unthinkable, knowing that Tehran would regard such a step as betrayal. Inside Lebanon, the Sunni community is mobilized, taking its strength from the uprising in Syria. Facing domestic hostility, Hizbullah cannot easily impose a fresh conflict on a Lebanese population that refuses to see its country destroyed on Iran's behalf. Once Assad goes, Hizbullah must adapt, or be isolated in Lebanon as a vestige of an Iranian agenda that many Lebanese will want to cancel.