Hezbollah, Iran move ahead with altering Syria’s demography

The Hezbollah militia and Iran never stop working to change the demography of the areas they control in Syria.

They do this by evacuating residents from these areas and replacing them with Shiite families from other parts of Syria as well as from Lebanon.

Darayya, a suburb of Damascus and an administrative section of Rif Dimashq, has recently come at the center of this demographic change.

The Iranians have finally reached a deal for evacuating 7,000 civilians and 600 opposition elements from the suburb, four years after besieging it, a period of time during which Hezbollah and Iran cut off all supplies from the suburb.

According to Syrian activists, 70 percent of Darayya was destroyed because of unrelenting airstrikes and shelling during the past four years.

The residents of the suburb had to leave to other parts controlled by the opposition, especially in Idlib province which shares administrative borders with the provinces of Lattakia; Homs; Hama, and the state of Turkey.

Al-Zabadani, which is controlled by the opposition, is in close proximity to the border with neighboring Lebanon. The city will follow in Darayya’s footsteps, which proves that deals signed between Hezbollah and Iran, on one hand, and the opposition, on the other, aim to keep a specific group of Syrians away from certain territories in the war-torn country. These territories are also meant to be in direct contact with Lebanon.

Areas in Lebanon along the border with Rif Dimashq are inhabited by a majority of Hezbollah supporters. This was why the Syrian opposition coalition warned against what it described as “suspicious” plans to force civilians to leave their homes in some parts of Syria.

The coalition criticized in a statement a systematic plan by Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to evacuate residents around Damascus to make a demographic change that would open the door for dividing Syria along sectarian lines.

In April 2015, Iranian negotiators reached a deal that allowed some militants to leave Al-Zabadani for al-Fu’ah and Kafriya which are predominantly Shiite.

Even before this, Iran succeeded in emptying the neighborhoods of Old Homs, except for al-Waer, from their original residents in the light of a deal that was signed in May 2014, two years after besieging and shelling them.

Tehran also evacuated residents in rural areas in Homs. In 2017, according to Syrian activist Yamen al-Himsi, pro-Syrian regime residents were moved to the city of al-Qusayr, western Syria, consequently turning the city into a concentration point for Shiite militants backing the regime.