Syrian President Bashar Assad is winning his war of survival, largely due to help from Hezbollah. Five thousand elite guerillas from the Shiite terrorist organization have trained Assad’s army in urban warfare (in which they have gained years of experience) and have also joined in the fighting, at the cost of 400 killed and at least 1,000 wounded.

The jihadist Sunni fighters — who have been unable to topple the Alawite regime in Syria — have converted their frustrations in Damascus into a series of lethal bombings against Hezbollah in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, the group’s stronghold in south Beirut. The spillover from Syria into Lebanon, with participation of combatants from Jordan and Iraq, is ongoing. None of this contributes to the stability in our region. Lebanon, because of Hezbollah, is also involved and is therefore paying a steep price.

Hezbollah fighters entered Syria toward the end of 2012, and Assad’s fate was supposed to be the same as Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh. Assad, however, realized that the Syrian conflict included too many players with opposing interests. Assad, unlike the other aforementioned leaders, has also been able to rely on a loyal military force: the elite Republican Guard and Hezbollah. These forces have fought together in harsh battles from Aleppo in the north to Homs. Together they recaptured the town of al-Qusayr, located near Homs. Together they continue waging the brutal campaign in the suburbs of Damascus, primarily in Ghouta — an area of strategic importance to the regime where Assad massacred hundreds in a chemical weapons attack in August last year.

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