![\"syrai-1-300\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/syrai-1-300.jpg\" "\\"syrai-1-300\\"")
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U.S. President Obama should challenge the Iranian regime\u2019s “Syrian land bridge to Hezbollah through more vigorous support for anti-Assad forces,” Jackson Diehl, Deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, writes.<\/p>\n
At his post-nuclear deal news conference last month, Obama conceded that the regime in Iran might use some of the billions it will soon receive to supply the Lebanese Hezbollah militia with fresh weapons, and he vowed to do his best to stop it. \u201cIt is in the national security interest of the United States to prevent Iran from sending weapons to Hezbollah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Diehl suggested on Monday that including the Iranian regime in Syrian peace talks would be a mistake.<\/p>\n
“The Assad regime is propped up almost entirely at this point by money, weapons and fighters supplied by Iran,” Mr. Diehl wrote on Monday. <\/p>\n
“More important, conceding an Iranian say on Syria contradicted Obama\u2019s goal of stopping its support for Hezbollah. That\u2019s because Iran\u2019s deep and so far unwavering support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad is driven almost entirely by its use of Syria as a land bridge to the Shiite militia.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Diehl said thousands of Hezbollah fighters “are keeping the Assad regime standing in Damascus \u2014 not because of any love for Assad\u2019s Alawite sect but to preserve this link to Iran.”<\/p>\n
“Lacking reliable sea access to Lebanon, Iran needs control over the Damascus airport and the border between Syria and Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah\u2019s resupply. That\u2019s why, as it loses ground to rebels in the north and south, the Assad regime\u2019s army \u2014 itself now largely an Iranian proxy \u2014 has begun to concentrate on defending a narrow strip of territory between Damascus and the border.”<\/p>\n
“The bottom line is that a serious effort to end Syria\u2019s war will require Obama to choose between challenging Iran\u2019s Syrian land bridge to Hezbollah through more vigorous support for anti-Assad forces, or accepting a settlement that tacitly sanctions a continued Iranian proxy army on Israel\u2019s border. Considering his investment in the nuclear deal, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if he shrinks from both options \u2014 and hands a Syrian nightmare to his successor.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. President Obama should challenge the Iranian regime’s “Syrian land bridge to Hezbollah through more vigorous support for anti-Assad forces,” Jackson Diehl, Deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-18867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-terrorism-fundamentalism","7":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n