Assad best bet for maintaining Syria integrity: Hezbollah

The Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is the best protection against preventing the partition of Syria.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem made the remarks in an interview with Reuters published on Wednesday.

“There is no solution in Syria without Assad, and however much the different sides try to prolong the crisis and to complicate the solution, they can’t produce a solution without President Assad,” he said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (AFP)

“With President Assad the solution can be logical and rational in finding political parameters that can give the opposition its share and the government its share, and there could be coordination which allows for putting things back in order and reviving authority in Syria”, he said.

Certain countries are seeking to partition Syria and Iraq where the Daesh Takfiri group has been operating over the last few years, the Hezbollah official added.

Syrian army soldiers patrol the area around the entrance of Bani Zeid after taking control of Leramun district on the northwestern outskirts of Aleppo on July 28, 2016. (AFP)

“So far the forces that want the unity of Iraq and Syria are able to prevent the idea of partition, but we should remain worried about… the possibility that some countries might push these two countries or one of them into partition,” Qassem added.

He further noted that Hezbollah has prevented Daesh from expanding into Lebanon.

“This is a major achievement… these great achievements deserve every sacrifice,” he said.

A Takfiri militant fires artillery during clashes with Syrian government forces near the village of Om al-Krameel in Aleppo’s southern countryside on May 5, 2016. (AFP)

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Back in 2014, the UN said it would no more update its death toll for Syria because it could not verify the figures that it received from various sources.