In a recent interview with Hizbollah’s Al Manar television station, Bashar al Assad, the president of Syria, was asked about the state of Syria’s relationship with Lebanon after years of tension following the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafiq al Hariri, in 2005. “Damascus cannot be neutral when one side is engaged in resistance and another is against the resistance,” he responded.
At the Arab League summit in Libya last weekend, Mr Assad again defended “resistance” against Israel, this time on behalf of Hamas. Syria was only upholding its political stakes, yet in recent years the notion of resistance has taken on a near mystical quality in some Arab quarters and in the West, beyond the narrow calculations of Arab regimes.
