Nasrallah Is Suddenly Sounding Meek--And For Good Reason

What happened to the brash leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah?
He has been continuously accusing the UN's Special Tribunal on Lebanon (STL) of being part of an Israeli plot, and steadfastly refusing to comply with any of its decisions.

Yet now Nasrallah has toned down his opposition to the STL.

Elliott Abrams has noticed that Nasrallah backs down:

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah Thursday said the party will not trigger a crisis over the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon despite its continued opposition to the move. ‘In a bid to preserve political stability and to keep the government intact while reaffirming our opposition [to the court] … We don’t accept the funding but we will not create a problem,' Nasrallah said during a televised speech.

What happened to those fiery words of yesteryear? Simple: the Syrian uprising. Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be among the great losers if the Assad regime is toppled, along with Iran and of course the Assad clan itself. Without Syrian support and the use of Syria for storage and the delivery of weaponry from Iran, Hezbollah will be weaker.

That would of course be one more reason to facilitate Assad's removal--but would Nasrallah really have that much to fear from a new Syrian regime?

Apparently so, as the Wall Street Journal reports, Syria Would Cut Iran Military Tie, Opposition Head Says:

A Syrian government run by the country's main opposition group would cut Damascus's military relationship to Iran and end arms supplies to Middle East militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the group's leader said, raising the prospect of a dramatic realignment of powers at the region's core.

Burhan Ghalioun, the president of the Syrian National Council, said such moves would be part of a broader Syrian reorientation back into an alliance with the region's major Arab powers. Mr. Ghalioun's comments came Wednesday, in his first major media interview since he was made SNC leader in October.

This would be one more reason to support the opposition in Syria--something that admittedly should be considered along with any extremist ties the group may have and whether they can be believed to keep their word.

In any case, Nasrallah seems to believe them.

Technorati Tag: Hezbollah and Syria.