'Strong' Hezbollah stands by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad

The militant Shia organisation also said it was in "a far stronger position" for a confrontation with Israel than it was for the last war in 2006.

The comments were made by Hezbollah's Beirut-based international spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi in an interview with The Weekend Australian.

Dr Moussawi conceded Syrians had genuine grievances and that public support for the regime could have fallen to as low as 55 per cent of the population.

Previously, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has repeated the line of the Assad regime that the uprising was caused by outside influences.

Dr Moussawi said: "We still believe that the majority of the people are behind Bashar al-Assad, whether it is 59 or 55 per cent of the people.

"We do not say that the people do not have rights to a more just, less corrupt system - the regime itself announced that."

Also in the interview, he said Hezbollah was in "the strongest position we have been in regarding Israel".

"It is a policy within Hezbollah that anything that happens anywhere regarding Israel will not be to the detriment of Hezbollah," he said. "Our enemy can launch any attacks that they want - we will respond.

"We are in a far stronger position than 2006.

In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel engaged in a 34-day war that began when Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid, killing three soldiers and kidnapping two.

"We have far more capability and far more numbers of fighters than we had then."

Israel dismissed the comments. "We can let them do all the boasting they want," foreign spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

"The more they do it, the less they convince their own people."

Dr Moussawi was reluctant to confirm the claims of Western analysts that Hezbollah was providing fighters for the Syrian regime.

"That is not something that has been acknowledged by our leadership," he said.

"We support a political dialogue and a political solution to be in the best interests of all involved."

However, he acknowledged Hezbollah fighters were operating along the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon, where he said they were "defending" Lebanese people.

"There are certain villages on the border that are under attack from certain extremist groups," he said.

"These people are defending themselves. Hezbollah is supporting Lebanese people who are living in adjacent Syrian villages."

Asked what it would mean for Hezbollah if the Assad regime collapsed, he said: "It is a matter of wait and see."

But he added: "We believe the regime will survive."

Observers in Lebanon who follow Hezbollah say Syria has caused tensions inside the organisation.

Hezbollah is keen to put on a united front and as part of this has made few public statements about Syria.

"We usually do not give statements," Dr Moussawi said.

Lebanese academic Yezid Sayigh, senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, said the Syrian crisis posed "a very awkward dilemma" for Hezbollah, which had supported revolutions against autocrats elsewhere. The Syrian regime had supported it for the past 20 years.

He said he believed Hezbollah could survive the fall of Assad.

"Hezbollah relies heavily on Syria as a transit route for military supplies, mainly from Iran, and for training areas and secure depots for certain weapons or facilities," he said.

"However, Syria is not a principal source of funding or training, and Hezbollah already has major military stockpiles in Lebanon, so it can survive losing its Syrian base."

Dr Sayigh said the main issue for Hezbollah was to retain its relationship with Iran militarily, financially and politically.

"And since Iran is determined to help the Assad regime in Syria survive or at least be part of a negotiated solution to the conflict, this means that Hezbollah cannot dissociate itself from the Syrian regime."