A Hezbollah position in Syria, pictured here on Dec. 27, 2024 (Credit: Louai Beshara/AFP)
Is the porous Lebanese-Syrian border — from which Hezbollah, among others, has long benefited — a thing of the past? Following the fierce clashes in Syria over the past few days between the new Syrian security forces (former fighters of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS) and Lebanese Shiite tribes based in Syria, Sunday brought relative calm, albeit a precarious one.The calm is likely due in large part to the Lebanese Army dispatching substantial reinforcements along the border and the intervention on the part of President Joseph Aoun, who contacted his counterpart in Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa on Saturday.This development heralds the start of a new era in which illegal trafficking and crime of all kinds — not only arms but also drugs, stolen cars and kidnappings — attributed to Hezbollah under the guise of “local Shiite tribes” could be...
Is the porous Lebanese-Syrian border — from which Hezbollah, among others, has long benefited — a thing of the past? Following the fierce clashes in Syria over the past few days between the new Syrian security forces (former fighters of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS) and Lebanese Shiite tribes based in Syria, Sunday brought relative calm, albeit a precarious one.The calm is likely due in large part to the Lebanese Army dispatching substantial reinforcements along the border and the intervention on the part of President Joseph Aoun, who contacted his counterpart in Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa on Saturday.This development heralds the start of a new era in which illegal trafficking and crime of all kinds — not only arms but also drugs, stolen cars and kidnappings — attributed to Hezbollah under the guise of “local Shiite tribes” could...