The militant group’s leader admits that the toppling of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, cut off an important land route from Iran.

Hezbollah head Naim Qassem said on Saturday that the Lebanese armed group had lost its supply route through Syria, in his first comments since the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad nearly a week ago by a sweeping rebel offensive.

The leader of the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, Naim Qassem, on Saturday admitted that his group had lost a supply route after the overthrow of the allied regime of Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

The ascendance of Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria should be viewed with great caution by Western powers, but the Assad regime’s collapse disables a critical node in Iran’s regional proxy network.

A severely hobbled Hezbollah was in no position to help defend former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime ally, from the lightning-fast insurgency that toppled him. With Assad gone, the militant group based in Lebanon is even weaker.

Hezbollah has lost one of its main supply routes because of the fall of the Syrian government, the group's leader confirmed in a televised statement Saturday.

Analysts say the diminishment of Hezbollah will have big consequences for Lebanon, where for decades it has been a major political player — and for Iran, which has relied on the group as one of

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the “complex challenges” facing Syria and the broader region in a recent discussion, a recent report said. The report reflects the importance that Iran places on trying to find a way back to Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime.