Q. It is hard to see, isn't it, a way to see the rebels defeat the army combined with Hezbollah's might?
A. Robin Yassin-Kassab: When we talk about support, the resistance, the Syrian people, the revolution, has almost no real support, despite all the rhetoric; but what it does have is the force of numbers. This is being presented sometimes as if Syria is split 50/50, and there are a lot of people who are worried about what's coming next, about the extremism that's been brought up by the traumatization of the country; but it's only a very small minority that is actually supporting the régime. So, by force of numbers, I think it will be impossible for the régime to re-capture what it's lost, even with the help of the crack forces of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah have fought Israel. They didn't actually do as well as we expected them to do, in the battle for Qusayr; because Qusayr is a small rural town, and it took them weeks to dislodge poorly armed local people. The reason for that - Hezbollah* should know this - Hezbollah did very well fighting Israel when Israel invaded Hezbollah's own turf. When Israel came into Lebanon, Hezbollah was very good at defending. Here they've gone into the mode of attacking, crossing their border, being aggressive another Arab people. This is terrible for the Syrians, but in the long term it's even worse for Hezbollah. Despite them being from the minority Shia sect, which some sectarian minded Sunnis in the Arab world don't like, nevertheless, a couple of years ago Hezbollah was wildly popular throughout the Arab world, including in Syria. In 2006, a million Lebanese Shia refugees, Hezbollah's people if you like, came to stay in Syria, they stayed in people's houses, it wasn't the Syrian state that looked after those people, it was ordinary people, including in Qusayr.
A. Robin Yassin-Kassab: When we talk about support, the resistance, the Syrian people, the revolution, has almost no real support, despite all the rhetoric; but what it does have is the force of numbers. This is being presented sometimes as if Syria is split 50/50, and there are a lot of people who are worried about what's coming next, about the extremism that's been brought up by the traumatization of the country; but it's only a very small minority that is actually supporting the régime. So, by force of numbers, I think it will be impossible for the régime to re-capture what it's lost, even with the help of the crack forces of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah have fought Israel. They didn't actually do as well as we expected them to do, in the battle for Qusayr; because Qusayr is a small rural town, and it took them weeks to dislodge poorly armed local people. The reason for that - Hezbollah* should know this - Hezbollah did very well fighting Israel when Israel invaded Hezbollah's own turf. When Israel came into Lebanon, Hezbollah was very good at defending. Here they've gone into the mode of attacking, crossing their border, being aggressive another Arab people. This is terrible for the Syrians, but in the long term it's even worse for Hezbollah. Despite them being from the minority Shia sect, which some sectarian minded Sunnis in the Arab world don't like, nevertheless, a couple of years ago Hezbollah was wildly popular throughout the Arab world, including in Syria. In 2006, a million Lebanese Shia refugees, Hezbollah's people if you like, came to stay in Syria, they stayed in people's houses, it wasn't the Syrian state that looked after those people, it was ordinary people, including in Qusayr.
*Or Trotskyists who have followed the debate on why it was wrong for Soviet Russia to invade Poland in 1920. Or followers of Chairman Mao, "The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea."
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