{"id":34735,"date":"2013-05-20T15:38:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T14:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/syrian-conflict-is-a-war-targeting-iran\/34735\/"},"modified":"2013-05-20T15:38:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T14:38:08","slug":"syrian-conflict-is-a-war-targeting-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/syrian-conflict-is-a-war-targeting-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Syrian conflict is a war targeting Iran\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Published time: May 20, 2013 14:29 <\/span>
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\n Free Syrian Army fighters carry their weapons as they cheer in Qusair town near Homs March 17, 2013. (Reuters) <\/p>\n

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The rise of sectarian violence and recent Israeli bombing indicate that the true aim of the Syrian civil war is to weaken Iran\u2019s position in the region, Middle East expert Tariq Ali said in an interview with RT.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah militants are fighting beside Syrian governmental
\ntroops to retake the strategic town of Qusair from the rebels. It’s
\nconsidered a key weapons smuggling route for opposition forces near
\nthe Lebanese border.<\/p>\n

The battle for the city in the contested Homs Province is viewed by
\nboth sides as a turning point which could prove crucial in deciding
\nthe conflict.<\/p>\n

Tariq Ali believes Hezbollah has joined the fight in order to
\nprotect the weapons smuggling routes of their own, those coming
\nfrom neighboring Iran.<\/p>\n

As for the Syrian people, Ali says the majority just wants the war
\nin the country to end, no matter which side gets the upper hand.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

RT:<\/b> Shia Hezbollah have joined the fight against the
\nmostly Sunni rebels. Is this conflict becoming sectarian?<\/i><\/p>\n

Tariq Ali:<\/b> I think, effectively, what this war is now
\nincreasingly becoming is a war that\u2019s targeting Iran and trying to
\nremove Iran\u2019s only Arab ally. It\u2019s become very clear in the way
\nwhich sectarianism has been used. Sunni versus Shia, Shia versus
\nSunni. I mean, without assigning blame or responsibility, that is
\nwhat\u2019s going on, effectively now, both in Iraq and in Syria. In
\nIraq you had a situation where the Sunnis constituted a minority,
\nbut ran the previous regime \u2014 the US intervened and effectively
\nhanded over power to the Shia religious parties of one sort or
\nanother. They then carried out large ethnic cleansings in Baghdad
\nand in other cities, and we now see the response to that at a time
\nwhen the US itself has very few \u2014 if any \u2014 troops left in Iraq.<\/p>\n

In Syria you had the opposite. You had a large Sunni majority,
\nwhich was govern by an Alawite regime, very closely linked to Iran.
\nAnd the Arab uprising that took place destabilized further. In my
\nopinion, you have minorities supporting the Syrian government,
\nminorities supporting the Islamist rebels and a large proportion of
\nthe population waiting for the war to end and hoping that something
\nwould happen to bring conclusion to this war. \u00a0<\/p>\n

RT:<\/b> Could Israel now attack Syria under the guise of
\ndefending itself, since its old enemy Hezbollah are there?<\/i><\/p>\n

TA:<\/b> You know one reason Hezbollah is being actively
\ndefending the government forces in Syria is because they fear that
\ntheir link to Iran will be broken and their long to getting weapons
\nto defend themselves will be broken. The Israelis have already
\nbombed Syria meeting with very little opposition \u2014 hardly any \u2014
\nfrom the so-called international community, which is the US and the
\nEU. In fact the Israelis bombed Syria without getting some sort of
\ngreen light from the US. Were they to do so again \u2014 it would create
\nan even larger mess.<\/p>\n

The Israelis haven\u2019t been threatened by Syria for a very long time.
\nIn fact, the Syrian government of President [Bashar] Assad and his
\nfather [former President Hafez Assad] had de facto collaborated
\nwith the Israelis in the past. So where they see the threat isn\u2019t
\nSyria, but Iran that\u2019s the Israeli obsession. And in order to
\nweaken Iran further they might carry out attacks on Damascus, but
\nthen they should be prepared for some consequences.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/b> Strategic affairs analyst Salam Harba says militants
\nare using the people in the city Qusayr as human shields. Could we
\nsee the Syrian government blamed for the civilian deaths?<\/i><\/p>\n

TA:<\/b> Well, it could be. The situation is so confused. We
\nstill don\u2019t know about the chemical weapons. The single United
\nNations\u2019 reports blamed the rebels. The rebels blamed the Syrian
\ngovernment. The Syrian government says \u2018Why should we even bother
\nto use them when we\u2019ve got MIG-29s in the air which can do more
\ndamage?\u2019<\/p>\n

Effectively, in my opinion, both sides are committing atrocities.
\nThere\u2019s no doubt about it. In a civil war this is inevitable. It
\nhappens. So the fact that we\u2019ve recently seen of Syrian or Islamist
\nradicals eating the organs out of the body of a Syrian soldier is,
\nof course, horrendous. And I think it\u2019s done the rebels a great
\ndeal of harm. I think they are getting isolated from the Syrian
\npeople. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt about that. People are
\ndesperate. They have no idea what\u2019s going to happen, when this war
\ncomes to an end.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: May 20, 2013 14:29 Free Syrian Army fighters carry their weapons as they cheer in Qusair town near Homs March 17, 2013. (Reuters) Embed Code The rise of sectarian violence and recent Israeli bombing indicate that the true aim of the Syrian civil war is to weaken Iran\u2019s position in the region, Middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}