Hezbollah: Regime, resistance axis will triumph in Syria

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that Syria's regime and the "resistance axis" including his Lebanese Shiite militant group would triumph in the Syrian conflict. "Syria will triumph and the resistance axis will triumph," Nasrallah said in a televised address to mark the 14th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels, saying they are defending an "axis of resistance" against Israel and the West. Nasrallah's speech came two weeks ahead of a presidential vote in Syria that is widely expected to return Assad to power. "Syria is advancing towards a presidential election that no amount of foreign intimidation or mockery by those who call themselves the 'Friends of Syria' can block or stop," he said. The exiled opposition and its Western backers, who have held several international meetings under a 'Friends of Syria' umbrella, have ridiculed the June 3 vote as a "farce". Syria's civil war raging since March 2011 has killed more than 160,000 people and forced nearly half the population to flee their homes. More than a million Syrians have taken refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, which has been sharply divided into pro- and anti-Assad camps.