High stakes on the border

At the end of 2011, it was still unclear whether or not Hezbollah was playing a direct role in assisting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian refugees streaming into Lebanon had insisted since nearly the beginning of the uprising in March 2011 that Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards were among the Syrian troops sniping at protesters from rooftops. But there was little hard evidence. Adding to the skepticism was Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s toned-down rhetoric on Syria around February and March 2012. Earlier, he had lambasted the West for seeking to oust Assad. Now, he was calling for dialogue and warning that continued violence would resolve nothing. Some diplomats and commentators took this to mean that Hezbollah was beginning to distance itself from a regime that seemed doomed. However, at the end of 2012, few would still cling to the notion that Hezbollah is uninvolved in the