BEIRUT — Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Saturday that Syria’s new rulers, who ousted the Lebanese armed group’s ally Bashar al-Assad, should not establish ties with neighboring Israel. “We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as ...

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.

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

"We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as an enemy and not normalise relations with it," Qassem said in a televised speech, his first public remarks since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad,