The commander of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, has extended his “congratulations” to the Syrian authorities for intercepting weapons shipments bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, at a time when the White House’s National Security Strategy argues that regional support for Syria will help restore its standing.
In a post on the official CENTCOM account on X on Friday, 5 December, Cooper wrote, “Congratulations to Syrian security forces on their recent interdiction of multiple weapons shipments, which were destined for Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Cooper added that the United States and its regional partners have a shared interest in ensuring the disarmament of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and in preserving peace and stability throughout the Middle East.
The White House’s 2025 National Security Strategy report states that Syria remains a “potential problem”, but that with American, Arab, Israeli, and Turkish support it could stabilize and regain its proper place as a key and positive player in the region, according to the document.
US partners in the Middle East are demonstrating a commitment to combating “extremism”, the report continues, a trend that US policy should continue to encourage.
However, doing so requires abandoning what the report describes as Washington’s failed experiment of intimidating these states, especially the Gulf states, and pressuring them to abandon their traditions and historical forms of governance.
The report calls for encouraging and praising reform wherever and whenever it emerges organically, without attempting to impose it from the outside.
It stresses that the key to successful relations with the Middle East is to accept the region, its leaders, and its states as they are, and to work together in areas of shared interest.
Operations against arms smuggling
On 2 December, security units affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Interior foiled an attempt to smuggle a quantity of landmines from the town of Yabroud (in the Qalamoun region of Rif Dimashq province, near the Lebanese border) to Lebanon.
The Interior Ministry announced on its Facebook page that security units had seized the entire shipment, arrested four people involved, and “neutralized” a fifth person during clashes with patrols.
Khaled Abbas Taktouk, head of the Internal Security Directorate in the Yabroud area, said that specialized units carried out a raid that resulted in the seizure of 1,250 landmines fitted with fuses, which were prepared for smuggling to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Interior Ministry also announced a joint security operation with the Ministry of Defense in western rural Damascus, which it said was aimed at combating weapons smuggling and restricting arms to the hands of the state.
According to a statement published on the ministry’s Facebook page on 15 September, the operation resulted in the seizure of “large” quantities of various types of weapons, including light and heavy arms, as well as different kinds of ammunition, that were prepared for smuggling out of the country.
The ministry described these attempts as a “threat to security and stability in the region”.
It affirmed that coordination with the Ministry of Defense would continue to carry out similar operations in different areas, with the aim of “reinforcing state control over security and preventing any circulation or smuggling of weapons outside its official framework”.
Disarming Hezbollah
Debate over disarming Hezbollah has intensified since the balance of power in Lebanon shifted as a result of last year’s war with Israel and the overthrow of Hezbollah’s ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah is considered the most powerful Iran-backed armed group in the region, but its supply lines to Iran via Syria were cut after Assad was toppled on 8 December 2024.
On 7 August this year, the Lebanese government approved a paper submitted in June by the US envoy Thomas Barrack, which stipulated the exclusivity of arms in the hands of the state, the extension of state sovereignty over all its territory, ensuring the sustainability of the cessation of hostilities, ending the armed presence of all non-state actors, including Hezbollah, across Lebanese territory, the withdrawal of Israel from the five disputed points, and the settlement of border issues and the file of prisoners through diplomatic means and indirect negotiations.
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