In the Arab world, reactions with reversed fronts, which reflect the double dimension of Hezbollah

Astonishment, dejection, but also jubilation. The Arab world reacted in disorder to the announcement, Saturday September 28, of the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, highlighting the particularly divisive dimension of this figure.

A major player in the history of the Middle East over the last thirty years, the man in the black turban was as much adored for his role as liberator of Lebanon in 2000, and his ability since that date to stand up to Israel, as he was reviled for his involvement in the crushing of the Syrian revolution and his subjugation to the interests of Iran.

Thus, on Saturday evening, while an angry crowd demonstrated in front of the United States embassy in Baghdad, brandishing the yellow standard of Hezbollah, young Syrians shouted their joy and distributed cakes in Idlib, in the north. west, the last refuge of the anti-Assad insurgency.

Ambivalence

This ambivalence is found in official reactions. Syria, an ally of Hezbollah within the “axis of resistance”, denounced “a despicable attack” and castigated “the Zionist entity’s disdain for international law”. The Damascus communiqué adds that “the Syrian people will never forget” the ” support “ brought by Nasrallah, a reference to the deployment of Hezbollah forces alongside loyalist troops during the Syrian civil war (2011-2018), which contributed to the survival of the Assad regime.

These words contrast with the extreme caution to which the Syrian authorities have been subject since the start of the Israeli escalation in Lebanon in mid-September. The authorities in Damascus know that they would have too much to lose if they came to the aid of Hezbollah, crushed under the bombs of the Israeli army. In a sign of solidarity with the Shiite movement, the Syrian government proclaimed three days of official mourning.

Unsurprisingly, the other links in the pro-Iranian camp also forcefully denounced the elimination of the “sayyed”, the honorific title with which Nasrallah adorns himself, as a descendant of the prophet. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, bombarded on Sunday by Israeli aircraft, declared that this act “will strengthen [leur] determination “. Palestinian Hamas has stigmatized a “cowardly terrorist act”. In Iraq, a country which is not formally part of the “axis of resistance” but in which a multitude of pro-Iranian militias operate, the Prime Minister, Mohamed Chia Al-Soudani, described the assassination as « crime » having “crossed all the red lines”.

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