Hezbollah was dealt a major blow during 14 months of war with Israel. The toppling of Assad, who had strong ties to Iran, has now crippled its ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.

The ascendance of Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria should be viewed with great caution by Western powers, but the Assad regime’s collapse disables a critical node in Iran’s regional proxy network, a counterterrorism expert explains.

The leader of the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, Naim Qassem, on Saturday admitted that his group had lost a supply route after the overthrow of the allied regime of Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

Assad’s ousting at the hands of rebels imperiled Syria’s ties to Tehran and raised questions over the country’s future relations with Hezbollah, which battled the rebels on

Hezbollah lost its most important supply route from Iran through Syria with the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, the group’s chief admitted Sunday.

Follow the latest on Syria For years, Hezbollah broadly castigated the Syrian rebels opposed to president Bashar Al Assad, labelling them terrorists as the Lebanese armed group sent thousands of fighters to prop up the regime in the neighbouring country.