The President of Syria said today that the map of the Middle East had been redrawn by Hezbollah's "victory" in its five-week war with Israel.

In a rare public speech, Bashir al-Assad said that the once invincible Israeli army had been humiliated and that the Jewish state would do well to seek peace and hand back occupied Arab land - or risk more defeats if it tried to pursue "terrorist policies" in the future.

Mr al-Assad, 40, a former ophthalmologist brought up in the shadow of his late father's 40 year struggle with Israel, was speaking to a conference of Syrian journalists, becoming the latest of a number of leaders to give their views on the Lebanon conflict since it reached a ceasefire on Monday.

The Syrian president said that the war in the Lebanon had been pre-planned by Israel, which he said had exploited the opportunity of Hezbollah's military raid on Israel on July 12 - in which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and eight killed - to launch an offensive to achieve its own political ends, the destruction of Hezbollah.

"The result was failure for Israel, its allies and masters," said Mr al-Assad. "We tell them that after tasting humiliation in the latest battles, your weapons are not going to protect you - not your planes, or missiles, or even your nuclear bombs."

He said that Israel's leaders were at an historic crossroads and urged them to hand back territory such as Syria's Golan Heights which have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "Either they move toward peace and the return of [Arab] rights or they move in the direction of continued instability until one generation decides the matter."

Syria is one of Hezbollah's main financial and military backers, and has long been accused of playing a partisan role in Lebanon's internal politics. Mr al-Assad referred to the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Beirut as Israel’s supporters in Lebanon, and claimed that they also bore responsibility for the war.

"The [Hezbollah] resistance is necessary as much as it is natural and legitimate," he said.

Mr al-Assad also lashed out at unnamed Arab regimes that have criticised Hezbollah for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and starting the war. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan all criticised Hezbollah’s actions at the start of the conflict.

"We do not ask anyone to fight with us or for us ... But he should at least not adopt the enemy’s views," Mr al-Assad said.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, has already claimed "strategic, historic victory" against Israel. Today Hezbollah flags fluttered all over south Beirut and southern Lebanon as Shias celebrated.

President Bush last night had a very different interpretation of events. He portrayed Hezbollah as the loser, claiming its fighters had been decimated, its arsenal depleted and its grip on southern Lebanon loosened by the terms of the ceasefire. By extension, Hezbollah's main backers, Iran and Syria, had been weakened too, said Mr Bush.

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