A Hezbollah flag on the ruins of a building bombed by Israel in Hermel, in November 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Syria's interior ministry said Sunday that security forces thwarted an alleged cross-border attack from the country's territory planned by remnants of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad and cells linked to Hezbollah.
In a statement, the interior ministry said security forces "arrested members of a sabotage cell" linked to Hezbollah and Assad remnants.
The ministry said the cell "was working to carry out an attack from inside Syrian territory on targets outside the borders" from Quneitra province, which borders Israel.
Syria's official SANA news agency, quoting an interior ministry source, said Hezbollah "intended to launch missiles across the border with the aim of destabilizing the country."
Syrian authorities are hostile to Hezbollah as the group played a key role in Syria's civil war that ended in 2024, fighting alongside Assad's forces.
The ministry said the Quneitra incident was the latest among "several attempts to destabilize the country and undermine public security" involving remnants of the former regime and unscrupulous individuals linked to Hezbollah."
Last week, Damascus accused Hezbollah of being linked to a cell that attempted to plant an explosive device in front of a house belonging to an unidentified religious figure in the Bab Tuma area of the Syrian capital.
But the group denied the ministry's claims last week, saying they were "false and fabricated."
Hezbollah said it has "no activity, no ties and no relationship with any party in Syria, and has no presence on Syrian soil."
The group called on Syrian authorities "to conduct a thorough investigation before making accusations without evidence."
Under Assad, Syria was part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel and enabled the transfer of weapons and money from Iran to Hezbollah.
But since taking over, Syria's Islamist authorities have rejected Iranian influence. Damascus has regularly announced arrests and seizures linked to alleged Hezbollah activities on its territory.
