A high-ranking Russian military official recently visited a southern suburb in Beirut where he met with Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah along with other senior military activists from the terror group, a Lebanese news site reported Monday.

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According to the report, the Russian official paid the visit in order to deliver a message from his bosses in the Kremlin that Hezbollah may be called upon to play a role in the conflict raging in the country in the near future. In all likelihood, that role would require actions in support of the Assad regime, which is being propped up by Moscow.

Hassan Nasrallah

The relationship between Russia and Hezbollah is well known, with some even positing that Russia supplies the Shiite militant group with advanced weaponry. But the claims are inconsistent with numerous Russian promises to Israel that Russian weaponry would not fall into the hands of the group.

Israel has carried out a number of attacks on weapons caches being transported to Hezbollah. Against the backdrop of these attacks, Moscow has denied sanctioning Israeli strikes in Syrian air space against Hezbollah.

Amid rumors of the alleged meeting between Nasrallah and the Russian military, the current ceasefire in south Syria agreed upon by the United States and Russia has continued to hold.

Ceasefire in south Syria (Photo: Reuters)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Russia is only interested in strengthening the ceasefire and is searching for possibilities to widen the cooperation with the Trump administration to bring about an end to the crisis in Syria which has claimed untold numbers of lives.

“We are in constant contact with the American officials and are interested in promoting a ceasefire in other areas in Syria,” Lavrov said during a press conference.