Cartoon. by Reza Aghili

Syrian rebels seize Iraqi crossing, choking Iranian lifeline to Hezbollah

Iran International: US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian Kurdish fighters, seized the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor and a nearby Iraqi-Syrian border crossing used by Iran to arm Lebanon's Hezbollah, Reuters reported on Friday.

The Al-Bukamal crossing fell under SDF control on Friday, Reuters said citing two Syrian army sources. The border crossing in Deir ez-Zor was a key channel used by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to transport weapons to Lebanon through Syria.

Losing the Iraqi crossing could represent a huge blow to the regional hegemony Iran built up in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq and effectively split a so-called Shi'ite crescent spanning from the Iranian plateau to the Mediterranean.

It had united the Islamic Republic with armed co-religionists which included Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, a kaleidoscope of militias there propping it up, the Syrian government under decades of Assad family rule and Hezbollah.

The region is home to multiple military bases of Iran-backed Shi'ite militia forces from neighboring Iraq and as far afield as Afghanistan. Local activists said the Syrian army and Tehran-backed forces had pulled out of Deir el-Zor before the SDF advance.

Deir ez-Zor is the third city to slip from President Bashar al-Assad's grasp in a week. Syrian opposition forces earlier captured the cities of Aleppo and Hama and are moving closer to capturing Homs, potentially threatening the capital Damascus and Assad’s rule.

Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday reported clashes in the southern city of Daraa near the border with Jordan, saying local armed groups seized multiple positions belonging to the Syrian government.

Anti-government forces also captured a key Syrian army base in Daraa known as Liwa 52, Reuters reported citing two sources among opponents of Bashar al-Assad. The report said the opposition forces also seized part of the Nasib crossing on the Syria-Jordan border.

Rebels also seized the central prison of As-Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria, releasing all its inmates, according to Sky News Arabia.

Hassan Abdolghani, one of the commanders of the rebels opposing Assad, called on Syrian army forces to withdraw from Homs and Damascus in a video statement. He also urged senior Syrian military officers to defect from the army.

For over a decade, Syria's civil war saw minimal changes in frozen front lines. However, insurgents from the northwestern Idlib region, led by the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have made stunning gains, marking the swiftest advances since the conflict began 13 years ago.

Russia has no plan to save Assad

Assad regained much of Syria with the help of Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah, but all three have recently been distracted by other crises. This has created an opportunity for Sunni Muslim rebels to regroup and strike back.

"The IRGC established a land connection between the Resistance, linking Iran to Iraq, Iraq to Syria, and Syria to Lebanon. Today, you can get in a car in Tehran and disembark in the southern suburbs of Beirut," former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani had said in a 2019 speech.

Iran plans to send weapons and personnel to Syria, a senior Iranian official said on Friday. However, Russia doesn’t have a plan to save Assad and doesn’t see one emerging as long as the Syrian president’s army continues to abandon its positions, Bloomberg reported Friday citing a person close to the Kremlin.

Russia has launched a number of airstrikes against Syrian rebels over the past week; however, it has informed the Assad government that any intervention will be limited as it has other priorities at this time, Sky News Arabia reported Friday.

The Russian embassy in Damascus has advised citizens in the country they are still able to leave on commercial flights, amid fears that the Syrian capital may be the next city to fall.