![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Assad-Ahmadinejad-and-Nasrallah.jpg\" "\\"Assad,")
<\/a>As fighters with Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah movement wage the battles that are helping Syria\u2019s regime survive, their chief sponsor, Iran, is emerging as the biggest victor in the wider regional struggle for influence that the Syrian conflict has become.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n With President Obama set to host a White House meeting of top national security aides on Wednesday to reassess options<\/a> in light of recent setbacks for the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the long-term outcome of the war remains far from assured, analysts and military experts say.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n But after the Assad regime\u2019s capture of the small but strategic town of Qusair last week \u2014 <\/a>a battle in which the Iranian-backed Shiite militia played a pivotal role \u2014 Iran\u2019s supporters and foes alike are mulling a new reality: that the regional balance of power appears to be tilting in favor of Tehran, with potentially profound implications for a Middle East still grappling with the upheaval wrought by the Arab Spring revolts.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is an Iranian fight. It is no longer a Syrian one,\u201d said Mustafa Alani, director of security and defense at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Council. \u201cThe issue is hegemony in the region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The ramifications extend far beyond the borders of Syria, whose location at the heart of the Middle East puts it astride most of the region\u2019s fault lines, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the disputes left over from the U.S. occupation of Iraq, from the perennial sectarian tensions in Lebanon to Turkey\u2019s aspirations to restore its Ottoman-era reach into the Arab world.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n An Iran emboldened by the unchecked exertion of its influence in Syria would also be emboldened in other arenas, Alani said, including the negotiations over its nuclear program, as well as its ambitions in Iraq, Lebanon and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf Iran wins this conflict and the Syrian regime survives, Iran\u2019s interventionist policy will become wider and its credibility will be enhanced,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n From Iran\u2019s point of view, sustaining Assad\u2019s regime<\/a> also affirms Iran\u2019s control over a corridor of influence stretching from Tehran through Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut to Maroun al-Ras, a hilltop town on Lebanon\u2019s southern border that offers a commanding view of northern Israel, according to Mohammad Obaid, a Lebanese political analyst with close ties to Hezbollah.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Iran has sought to minimize its visible involvement in Syria so as not to exacerbate sectarian tensions that have been inflamed by a conflict pitting an overwhelmingly Sunni opposition against a regime dominated by Assad\u2019s minority Shiite-affiliated sect, Obaid said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Iran has provided advice, money and arms to Assad\u2019s regime, but the manpower needed to bolster his forces, flagging after two years of trying to contain the revolt, has come from Hezbollah, which was founded in the 1980s with help from Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps and has become Lebanon\u2019s leading military and political force.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHezbollah is part of the Iranian strategy,\u201d Obaid said. \u201cThis counts as a victory for the group of Iran, Syria, Iraq and Hezbollah against the group backed by the United States.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Supporters of the Syrian opposition contrast the hesitancy of the U.S. administration in offering arms to the outgunned, poorly trained and deeply divided rebels with the commitment that Iran has shown to its Damascus ally.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The U.S. goal was to pressure Assad into making concessions at the negotiating table, without delivering a resounding military victory to the rebels that might have brought Islamists to power in Damascus, said Amr al-Azm, a history professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio who is Syrian and is active in the opposition. Instead, a proposed peace conference in Geneva seems likely to be held on Assad\u2019s terms, should it go ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPolitically we\u2019re screwed, and militarily we\u2019re taking a pounding,\u201d Azm said. \u201cAmerica talked the talk while Iran walked the walk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018Iran walked the walk\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n