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Syria Seeks to Sever Iran-Linked Networks Smuggling Arms and Cash

(Washington Post) Loveday Morris - In recent weeks, Syrian government forces have been trying to choke off smuggling routes that cross the rugged 233-mile border with Lebanon. These routes are the last vestiges of the "land bridge" used by Iran and its allied militias to ferry weapons, cash, drugs and fuel to help prop up the Syrian government and Hizbullah in Lebanon. The overthrow of Assad in December by Islamist militants dealt a major setback to Iran's regional power and largely cutting it off from Hizbullah. With its regional influence shattered, Iran has now started looking beyond its traditional allies, including to Sunni Muslim extremist groups, in efforts to maintain supply lines and destabilize the new government. After Hizbullah was pummeled by Israeli forces in Lebanon last fall, the group remains desperate to replenish its arms stockpiles and bring in cash to compensate its traditional supporters in Beirut and southern Lebanon who lost property in the conflict. In the Syrian city of Qusayr, just six miles from the Lebanese border, the entire industrial zone had been turned into a vast weapons storage site, covering an area of about 50 soccer fields. As the Islamist fighters advanced last year from northern Syria, Hizbullah militants who had gathered in the city packed up and left without a fight, locals said. "It was a huge loss for them," said Ahmed Adbelhakim Ammar, the head of security for Qusayr. Haid Haid, a Syria analyst with Chatham House who tracks transnational smuggling routes, said, "There is a huge stockpile in Syria that Hizbullah is trying to move out of Syria. They know where those are, and they are working with Syrian networks to get them out." Israel has continued to pound weapons stockpiles in Syria.
2025-04-15 00:00:00
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