After having been told by President Barack Obama to rein in Hezbollah, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman blasted the group late last week for dragging Lebanon into the Syrian conflict:

“The resistance is more noble and more important than anything, and should not get bogged down in the sands of dissension, whether in Syria or Lebanon,” he said in a statement, referring to Hezbollah’s strong stance against Israel. This comes as at least seventy-five fighters from the Hezbollah militant group were reported killed in Syria since first becoming involved in the war months ago.

The statements are unlikely to move the Iran-backed terror group to change its decision calculus, under which it has been bolstering the Bashar al-Assad regime even at the expense of dragging Lebanon into the now two year-old war across the border. Hezbollah’s hold on Lebanon is strong enough that the group does not have to fear significant erosion of either its political or military control domestically.

In line with those calculations, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s implicit response over the weekend was stark:

The leader of Lebanese movement Hezbollah said on Saturday his group would stay in the Syrian war “to the end of the road” and bring victory to its ally President Bashar Assad… “We will not rely on anyone … like all the battles before this one: We will be its people, its men, and we will be the ones who bring it victory,” he said, speaking from an undisclosed location. “We will continue to the end of the road, we accept this responsibility and will accept all sacrifices and expected consequences of this position,” he said in the televised footage, which showed thousands of cheering people watching him on big screens in the Lebanese town of Mashgara.

[Photo: VeriteSurLaSyrie / YouTube]