The new government of Syria has decided in recent days to prevent all Iranian planes - including civilian ones - from flying over Syrian skies, Israeli news website Walla reported on Sunday.
"The rebels' decision will make it very difficult for Hezbollah to restore its military capabilities," the report said.
Syria's de facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a recent interview that Iran’s influence in the region has been significantly diminished by its ally President Bashar al-Assad's fall.
Sharaa, whose radical Sunni Islamist group Hayat al-Tahrir Sham (HTS) swiftly defeated Assad's forces earlier this month, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Syria's opposition had “set the Iranian project in the region back by 40 years,” signaling a major shift in Syria’s stance toward Iran.
“By removing Iranian militias and closing Syria to Iranian influence, we’ve served the region’s interests—achieving what diplomacy and external pressure could not, with minimal losses.”
Under Assad, Iran used Syria to smuggle weapons and other military equipment to Lebanon's Hezbollah. However, Hezbollah's new secretary general Naim Qassem admitted last week that the Lebanese armed group had lost its supply route through Syria.
