With
the Trump and Netanyahu administrations now working in lockstep,
U.S.-Israeli hostility towards Iran has now ripened into a plan to
repeat what befell Syria over six years ago – the hijacking of
minor protests and their transformation into the cover for a
foreign-funded insurgency intent on toppling Iran’s elected
government.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - Reviving a once-thwarted assassination plan
On
Monday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that an “American-Israeli
agreement” had been forged that determined that Iranian general
Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force active in fighting the
Wahhabist insurgency in Syria, is a “threat to the two
countries’ interests in the region.” This understanding
subsequently resulted in the U.S. government giving Israel the “green
light” to assassinate Soleimani, a plan Israel had unsuccessfully
attempted to carry out three years earlier. The Obama administration
had thwarted that operation, when Israel was allegedly “on the
verge” of killing Soleimani near Damascus, by warning the Iranian
government of the plan.
However,
the U.S.’ failure to enact regime change in Syria – a close ally
of Iran – and the Trump administration’s close relationship with
Israel have apparently led the U.S. government to openly voice its
support for Israel to assassinate a top general of Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard, a move that would likely embroil Iran and Israel
– and perhaps the rest of the Middle East – in war.
Indeed,
Soleimani’s force in Syria has been instrumental in aiding the
Syrian government in eliminating the largely foreign-funded Wahhabist
insurgency that was intended to remove Syrian president Bashar
al-Assad from power, a key strategic goal of both the U.S. and Israel
in the region.
Furthermore
— with the disintegration of Daesh (ISIS) in Syria and, along with
it, the disintegration of the U.S.-led coalition’s excuse for its
illegal presence in Syria — Soleimani delivered a forceful message
to the U.S. forces stationed in Northwest Syria. In that message,
delivered to the U.S. via the Russian military, Soleimani warned the
U.S. military command in Syria that it best remove all U.S. forces
currently present in Syria “or the doors of hell will open up,”
adding that “I advise you leave by your own will or you will be
forced to.”
Russia
later echoed Soleimani, albeit less forcefully, by advising that U.S.
forces vacate Syria, as the terrorist threat has been largely
eliminated and the U.S.’ continued presence in the country would be
in violation of the Syrian government’s sovereignty.
However,
the U.S. has made it clear that it has no plans to leave Syria
anytime soon. Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis
insisted that the “war is not over” in Syria or Iraq, as much
works remain to be done to prevent a potential resurgence of Daesh.
Mattis’ words came just days after reports surfaced alleging that
U.S. forces in Northwestern Syria are retraining Daesh fighters from
areas “liberated” by U.S. proxy forces.
The
endgame of this U.S. operation is likely the exportation of
insurgents from Northwestern Syria through Iraqi Kurdistan, where
U.S. forces are still present, and into eastern Iran where the
fomentation of an armed insurgency will be used to destabilize and
hijack the protests currently taking place in Iran. Most of the
recent growth in reported unrest has been concentrated in eastern
Iran.
In
order for such a program to achieve its goal, the U.S. must be able
to continue illegally occupying northwestern Syria. With Soleimani
out of the picture and the Quds Force in Syria thus weakened, that
occupation would be significantly easier to prolong.
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