Report: Hezbollah retreating from Israel-Syria border, Iran remains entrenched

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Hezbollah terror group is withdrawing to positions 40 kilometers from Syria’s border with Israel, while Iran has so far refused to acquiesce to Russian demands.

By: World Israel News Staff

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which is one of the primary bodies on the ground monitoring Syria’s bloody civil war, issued a report on Thursday stating that Hezbollah units in Syria were retreating from the Israeli border.

Citing “information from reliable sources,” SOHR announced, “Lebanese Hezbollah, and the gunmen loyal to them who are backed by Iran have started withdrawing from the Syrian south toward areas 40 kilometers away from the border with [Israel] and the Syrian–Jordanian border, in response to Russian demands that the Iranians and Hezbollah should withdraw from this area after Russian consultations with regional parties.”

Israel has repeatedly demanded that Iran and the Hezbollah terror group withdraw from its borders. It was recently reported that Jerusalem and Moscow had come to an agreement on the issue, with Russia ostensibly capable of exerting significant pressure on the various factions operating in Syria.

Notwithstanding the retreat of its terror proxy, Hezbollah, Iran does not appear to be willing to remove its own military forces from southern Syria, seeking a corresponding evacuation of US and international coalition forces from the Syrian-Iraqi border in exchange.

Israel maintains that it will not permit Iran to become entrenched in Syria, within close striking distance of the Jewish state, and continues to issue warnings regarding its red lines as they pertain to the Iranian military presence in Syria, in addition to carrying out air strikes.

In the most recent strike attributed to Israel, pro-Assad regime forces in eastern Syria were targeted. In previous strikes, Iran has suffered significant losses, both in terms of military personnel and assets.