As of 12/17/2017, a week after Nasrallah's announcement, there are no signs of Hezbollah's withdrawal from Syria. Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian government forces and entered parts of the Idlib province in north-west Syria, one of four "de-escalation" zones which foreign powers including Turkey, Iran and Russia established. Fighting was to stop along with the targeting of civilians. Government forces, including Hezbollah, took control of the Tahrir al-Sham Organization's villages, including the village of Tal al-Khanazir south-east of Idlib.
But for all its "Resistance" commitment exhortations to liberating Palestine, Tehran does not want Hezbollah to ignite any war in Lebanon, which is far too important to Iran's main goal in Lebanon. Rather is wants Hezbollah to tighten its grip on Lebanon during the run-up to the coming May 2018 elections in which Hezbollah hopes to make a clean sweep and virtually control all the Lebanese leadership posts including President, Prime Minister, the Army, all Security Services, Parliament, and even change the constitution which it is reportedly planning to do if it wins the coming election. For example, Hezbollah could discard the current the power-sharing distribution in parliament from half Christian/half Muslim to a three-way system between Christians, Sunnis, and Shia. If so Hezbollah would have achieved perpetual power in Lebanon's institutions. It has wanted to do this for years but lacked the Parliamentary majority which it may now achieve in the May 2018 elections.
It's not been just Arab politicians who playing the Jerusalem card, some perhaps ironically, depending on one's sense of humor includes the Turks. Turkey's President Erdogan has taken a leading position as spokesman for the Palestinians claim to Jerusalem, yet it was the Ottoman Turks who colonized the Arabs for over 600 years and ignored Jerusalem as a backwater city of no religious importance and of little value. Earlier, when Caliph Omar captured Jerusalem in 637, it had nothing to do with the Koran or Prophet Mohammad ordaining that it was to be Islamic. Jerusalem just happened to be in the geographical area of the war between Arabs fighting the Byzantines. For a period, Muslims did pray towards Jerusalem because of its connections to Abraham and because Mecca was in pagan hands, but when Jews rejected Prophet Muhammad as the promised messiah, and Mecca was cleared of idols, Muslims largely lost interest in Jerusalem.
Such is history-- with a fair bit of the devil rising from the details of the ill-advised White House preemption of an explosive issue that will continue to ignite unpredictable conflicts in this region and beyond.
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