Middle East Focus: The West and Qassem Suleimani: Conqueror of Lebanon and Iraq is in Damascus………….

Arabia Deserta

The West and Qassem Suleimani: Conqueror of Lebanon and Iraq is in Damascus………….

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“U.S. officials increasingly say they suspect that Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, Iran's covert action mastermind, is operating in Syria, helping Tehran's key Arab ally, President Bashar al-Assad, crush a stubborn 10-month-old uprising against his rule. If these suspicions are correct, this would be a key mission for the shadowy Suleimani, who specializes in using covert pressure to secure strategic objectives. There have been unconfirmed reports that Suleimani was in Damascus this month as the crisis in Syria seemed to be moving from a popular uprising toward civil war between the minority Alawite regime and the Syria's Sunni majority. Tehran has a lot at stake here………......”

The Iranian regime does have a lot at stake in Syria. Its closest Arab ally is teetering on the brink. Everyone from the United States to the Saudi princes want the regime to fall so that they can pick up the pieces, and eject Iranian influence. I am not sure what Suleimani can do that Ba’athist operatives, with the longer experience of fifty years behind them, can’t do on their own.
On the other hand it is possible, and logical, that the Iranians are trying to actively help the repressive Assad regime, although unconfirmed. After all, the Obama administration and Britain and the Saudi princes are actively helping the repressive sectarian apartheid regime in Bahrain. Mr. Obama is even sending weapons of repression against congressional wishes to the al-Khalifa clan in Manama. The Brits are sending whatever they can, including their bored royal princes and princesses. Besides, the Saudis are not exactly an example of freedom and democracy. They are as repressive, potentially more repressive, as the Assad regime, and the West is arming them with weapons they may never be able to use (except for tear gas and bullets).

Look for someone in the West or Israel to start calling Qasin Suleimani a new “Hitler”. Or maybe Romney or some senator will get creative for once and just call him “Himmler”.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com