BEIRUT: The collapse of the 40-year-old Assad regime in Syria would radically change the politics of the Middle East, reducing the influence of Iran and its Islamist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, the main Syrian opposition leader in exile has said.

Syria would align itself with the Arab League and the Gulf, Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun told the Wall Street Journal in an interview in France.

“Our future is truly tied to the Arab world and the Gulf in particular,” he was quoted as saying in a WSJ transcript.

Damascus would have no special relationship with Iran and Hezbollah if President Bashar Al-Assad lost power, he said.

“The current relationship between Syria and Iran is abnormal,” Ghalioun told the daily. “Syria is the center of the Arab Orient. It cannot live outside its relationship with the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf countries, Egypt and others.”

“There will be no special relationship with Iran. This is the core issue – the military alliance. Breaking the exceptional relationship means breaking the strategic military alliance. We do not mind economic relations.”

Syria has had close ties with Tehran since the early years of the Islamic Republic of Iran, founded in 1979.

“As our relations with Iran change, so too will our relationship with Hezbollah. Hezbollah after the fall of the Syrian regime will not be the same. Lebanon should not be used as it was used in the Assad era as an arena to settle political scores,” Ghalioun told the paper.

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Abu Hamzeh, who said he defected from the Syrian army on May 3, 2011, speaks with Reuters TV at an undisclosed location near the Lebanese-Syrian border on Saturday. (Reuters)