Shedding Light on the Shadows of Aleppo: Is This an Iranian Game?

Rasa - The Syrian government troops, supported by Russian fighter jets and Iranian military advisors, continue their military operations and advances in the surrounding areas of the newly-liberated Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.

News ID: 425497

Date: 03 December 2016 - 22:52

RNA - The allied forces have been slow to move into the remaining besieged areas which still shelter thousands of foreign-backed rebels. The aim is to minimise civilian casualties as rebels still use them as human shields. Whether this will slow down even further the final push to liberate the rest of the city remains to be seen. But what is certain is that the pain of Aleppo’s civilians will end the moment the rest of the rebel-held areas fall into the hands of Syrian forces.

Despite what you might have heard or read over the last few days, this could be a turning point in the conflict and indeed a major blow to the terrorists. The fall of Eastern Aleppo would give the Syrian government control of the country’s five largest cities and the critical western parts where it has major popular support. But that's not all.

At this point, Western media outlets claim one of the real victors in a post-Aleppo Syria would also be Iran, which has been supporting Damascus for the past five years. They claim in doing so, Iran will enforce a sectarian divide, with its Shiite forces allying with Syria’s Alawites against the Sunni and other groups. They then urge the incoming US president, Donald Trump, to take a strong stand against what they see as Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East.

This is silly. Liberation of Aleppo does in no way mean a surrender to Tehran, let alone allowing Iran to consolidate its influence across the region. Iran’s Syrian intervention has come with human costs; it is at the request of Damascus; and it has nothing to do with an “Iranian game” of tensions with Arab neighbours.

What is happening in Aleppo is not about Iran killing and abusing the Sunni minority! That horrendous record of killing and abusing minority groups belongs to “moderate” proxy forces and other terror groups which are fighting for the United States and its vassal allies.

The regime changers recruit, pay, and train these goons because they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. They are the direct sponsors of foreign fighters and Wahhabi-Salafi extremists, and they could end their presence in Aleppo instantly if they wanted. But for a host of reasons – including regime change and pretext to contain Iran - they want their Al-Qaeda-allied proxies to remain in Syria even after Aleppo has fallen.

To this end, the US Senate has even voted 99-0 to continue the idiotic, counterproductive, economically-disastrous, and anachronistic sanctions regime against Iran. The  White House has confirmed that President Obama will sign the bill – even if it violates the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers.

Let us rephrase that: Per usual, the incoming Trump presidency will not spare the world the murderous policies of his predecessors. He will adopt a much more aggressive stance against Tehran and Damascus, including taking steps that increase sectarianism in the region. For the most part, President Trump will back Congress, which is now firmly in Republican control and aggressively targets Iran. There will be no dialogue on the political dimensions of the crisis either, much less on how to limit the spread of sectarianism in the region.

It has become increasingly clear that Washington has no strategy to demobilize the terrorist groups of ISIL and Al-Qaeda, or neutralize their grandiose ambitions in the Levant. Just like his predecessors, President Trump will level the playing field unilaterally with the cult of air power and Pentagon advisers that to make things worse in the unwinnable war that is Syria.

It is precisely within this extant ideological frame that the War Party refuses to let go of Iran. The unstable and thin-skinned propagandists are desperate because they’re losing, and they know it. On the back of a massive $611 billion new military spending budget and ever expanding war powers, they will use the Iran trump card, fake news and smear campaign to complicate the Syria imbroglio. The ultimate goal is to stamp out the resistance by any means necessary, to thrive on the breakdown of existing order, and to impose their invented imperial realities upon world’s citizenry - with no concern whatsoever for the long-term well-being of the people in Syria and beyond. It bears watching.

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