Mordechai Kedar: Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, and the Iranian Octopus
print
tell a friend
Demonstrators march in support of Bashar al-Assad's regime
Photo Credit: Matanya Tausig/Flash90
Iran’s ability to send Iraqis to fight on Asad’s side and bring the Iraqi government to cooperate with Syria in order to prevent the smuggling of weapons to the rebels may be the biggest strategic surprise in the world, and it is becoming clear that it is Iran who controls Iraq, that Iraq functions today according to the interests of Iran. After all of the Western blood and treasure that has been spent on Iraq since 2003, and after the elimination of the bloodthirsty dictator who once ruled, this torn and divided country has clearly fallen like ripe fruit into the hands of the Ayatollahs of Qum. It can be said ironically that Iran is the big winner in the war of the West against Saddam. Iran achieved this position even while the Americans were still in Iraq, but were too frightened to act decisively against Iran.
In Iraq the Americans had a trove of information regarding the involvement of the Guardians of the Revolution and Iranian Intelligence in Iraq since 2003. The Americans were able to get their hands on lots of standard equipment, weapons, and ammunition that had been smuggled from Iran into Iraq and used in the guerrilla war led by people like Abu Dara, and militias such as the “Mahdi Army” against the forces of the coalition. Thousands of coalition soldiers were killed and wounded in Iraq by these smuggled armaments. Despite all of this, the United States and the coalition never dared to place the responsibility on Iran for killing coalition soldiers, fearing such statements would obligate them to act against Iran within Iran’s territory, while they had to continue to protect themselves against Iranian attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Iranian regime realized the Western lack of determination, and increased the attacks upon coalition soldiers, in order to force the members of the coalition to declare one after another that they were withdrawing from the hopeless war, the treacherous swamp called Iraq. Finally, the United States also retreated from Iraq, and left that hemorrhaging country to the whims of the Ayatollahs, who do with it as they please – if it suits them, they launch attacks against Sunnis, or they allow the Arab League summit to meet in Baghdad and create the appearance of a free, liberated and serene Iraq, so that they can sneak the representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council (plus Germany) into Baghdad in order to extort from them more concessions and buy more precious time for the development of their military nuclear program.
Iran, suffering a difficult economic crisis and severe deterioration in the value of its currency because of the international sanctions, has found an easy way to support the collapsing Syrian economy: pressure Iraq to supply Asad with cash to pay his military. Iran demanded from Nouri Al-Maliki, prime minister of Iraq, that Iraq supply oil to Syria, so that it can fuel the tanks and armored personnel carriers that shoot death bombs into the residential neighborhoods of Homs, Idlib, and Dar’a. The payment for these services will reach when the hidden Mahdi returns to the world…
There are reports that Iraq is acquiring equipment that Iran is forbidden to acquire. And after this equipment arrives in Iraq, it is transferred to Iran. This includes equipment and materials used in the infrastructures for oil and gas production, petro-chemical industries, and factories that manufacture fertilizer and medicines. The concern is that Iran uses this equipment and material in order to produce chemical weapons,which is why the countries of the world are forbidden to sell these items to Iran. Iraq serves as a legal cover for this Iranian acquisition. It may be that Iraq also acquires instrumentation and metals that are used in the weapons industries in order to transfer them to Iran.
The Gulf is Burning
Along with the Iranian takeover of Iraq, Iran has also succeeded in frightening the states of the [Persian] Gulf to death by tightening the Shi’ite noose: Shi’ite communities, which are found in all of the states of the Gulf, serve as an Iranian fifth column. These communities undermine the internal stability in Iraq, and especially in Bahrain – the monarchy that is situated on an island opposite the coast of Saudi Arabia. This monarchy has mostly Shi’ite residents, but is ruled by the Sunni minority. And on this island-kingdom is situated the main U.S. naval base in the Persian Gulf. The goal of undermining Bahrain’s stability is to force the ruling family to demand that the Americans leave, as happened when the Saudis eliminated the American air base in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, in order to silence the Al-Qaeda propagandists that claimed the House of Saud was collaborating with the modern crusaders from America who had contaminated the land of the two holiest places to Islam. Eliminating the air base also served to deprive Iran of an excuse to incite the Shi’ite residents against the Saud family.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Ph.D. Bar-Ilan U.) Served for 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence specializing in Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups and the Syrian domestic arena. A lecturer in Arabic at Bar-Ilan U., he is also an expert on Israeli Arabs.
You might also be interested in:
You must log in to post a comment.
Loading ...