{"id":328432,"date":"2017-09-30T19:17:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T18:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/how-syrias-victory-reshapes-mideast\/"},"modified":"2017-09-30T19:17:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T18:17:44","slug":"how-syrias-victory-reshapes-mideast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/how-syrias-victory-reshapes-mideast\/","title":{"rendered":"How Syria\u2019s Victory Reshapes Mideast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The failure of the U.S.-Israeli-Saudi \u201cregime change\u201d project in Syria changes the future of the Mideast, possibly ushering in an era of greater secularism and tolerance, writes ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke.<\/p>\n<p>By Alastair Crooke<\/p>\n<p>Plainly, Syria\u2019s success \u2013 notwithstanding the caution of President Bashar al-Assad in saying that signs of success are not success itself \u2013 in resisting, against the odds, all attempts to fell the state suggest that a tipping point in the geopolitics of the region has occurred.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5005\" style=\"width: 288px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/syria-map1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/syria-map1-278x300.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5005\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/syria-map1-278x300.jpg 278w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/syria-map1.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5005\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/syria-map1-278x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/syria-map1-278x300.jpg 278w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/syria-map1.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>We have written <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-09-06\/it-time-benjamin-netanyahu-panic\">before<\/a> how the Syria outcome dwarfs that of Israel\u2019s 2006 war against Hezbollah, significant though the result of that war was, too.<\/p>\n<p>Both events taken together have brought America\u2019s unipolar moment in the Middle East to an end (though not globally, since the U.S. still retains its necklace of military bases across the region).\u00a0The successes have corroded badly the reputation of the Gulf States and have discredited fired-up Sunni jihadism as a \u201cgo-to\u201d political tool for Saudi Arabia and its Western backers.<\/p>\n<p>But, aside from the geopolitics, the Syria outcome has created a physical connectivity and contiguity that has not existed for some years: the border between Iraq and Iran is open; the border between Syria and Iraq is opening; and the border between Lebanon and Syria, too, is open. This constitutes a critical mass both of land, resources and population of real weight.<\/p>\n<p>The region will listen intently to what these victors will have to say about their future vision for the region \u2013 and for Islam. In particular, how Syria articulates the lessons for Middle Eastern societies in light of its war experience will have a profound import.<\/p>\n<p>This discussion has barely begun in Syria, and has not reached a conclusion \u2013 and may not, for some time; but we can speculate a little.<\/p>\n<p>At present, talk is divided between Levantism, which is based in the idea of cultural diversity, such as has existed \u2013 alongside periodic acute tensions \u2013 in Lebanon and Syria, and Arab nationalism. The framework for both\u00a0concepts being understood to be\u00a0a non-assertive secularism within a state structure, encompassing equality&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2017\/09\/30\/how-syrias-victory-reshapes-mideast\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The failure of the U.S.-Israeli-Saudi \u201cregime change\u201d project in Syria changes the future of the Mideast, possibly ushering in an era of greater secularism and tolerance, writes ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke. By Alastair Crooke Plainly, Syria\u2019s success \u2013 notwithstanding the caution of President Bashar al-Assad in saying that signs of success are not success itself [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-328432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}