No longer a Shiite Crescent

Press clipping dated Monday, 13 June 1949

By Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia’s authoritative political analyst, author and kingpin of the impending Al Arab TV news channel, writing in Arabic today for the mass circulation newspaper al-Hayat

When the term “Shiite Crescent” was coined a few years back, it was meant to warn of Iranian expansionism across the Levant.

Nowadays, after the Big Powers’ defeat in the Qusayr battle, Shiite fundamentalism is basking in all the glory of triumph.

With the resulting enlistment of hundreds of Iraqi Shiite volunteers in the war overtly championed by Iran, the Crescent is liable to evolve into a political axis stretching from Tehran to Beirut via Baghdad and Damascus.

The Iranian Oil Ministry will pull out old maps from its drawers to build the pipeline to pump Iranian oil and gas from Abadan (across Iraq) to Tartus.

The Iranian Ministry of Roads and Transportation will dust off the national railways authority’s blueprints for a new branch line from Tehran to Damascus, and possibly Beirut,

Why not? The wind is blowing in their favor and I am not making a mountain out of a molehill.

Tehran has been mulling and airing such projects for years without actually starting them.

But she will, once she settles the Syria war in her favor. It is only natural for her to consolidate victory on the ground by blending her triumphant axis in a singular political, economic and military network.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader or Guardian Jurist of Iran, will realize his dream of delivering his sermon from the pulpit of Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, announcing the attainment of Islamic unity he has long promised.

He will then pompously step down from the pulpit to stroke the forehead of a wheelchair-bound Damascene boy, signaling that forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

He will then stand next to a group of Syrian Sunni ulema wearing white turbans. There are lots of them, in the mould of Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, ready to oblige.

He will shake and raise their hands as camera clicks and flashlights capture the historic moment.

The Guardian Jurist will promise that his next prayer – or his successor’s. if he is sufficiently humble – will be in Jerusalem.

But he won’t mention the Golan. He knows the Russians are now the key component of the UN monitoring force separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Heights.

Because Takfiris are still mounting desperate operations here and there, he realizes that Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters are busy keeping the peace in predominantly Sunni cities, towns and townships.

In that afternoon, a huge reception will be held in a newly rehabilitated Damascus palace still showing the scars of war to mark the signing of a mutual defense pact by the presidents of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The Guardian Jurist will stand wreathed in smiles in the background, perhaps in awe at the likely appearance of the Hidden Imam to bless the agreement.

We turn southward to Riyadh and find the capital calm and dusty but concerned the battle was settled in favor of Bashar al-Assad and his partners.

Riyadh is conscious the clean sweep is not Bashar’s but that of Iran and the old Khomeini scheme.

Bashar becomes the representative of Vali e-faqih in Damascus.

Riyadh is also alarmed by Iranian activity in its surrounding area.

It fears for Bahrain. The Houthis have won uncontested control of more than half the old North Yemen. South Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s traditional ally, is being gradually eaten away by Iran.

Gulf unity plans have dissipated. Some Gulf countries are keen to flatter Iran so as to preserve a modicum of their national sovereignty.

The Arab common market and Fertile Crescent idea evaporated and with it the dream of resurrecting the Hejaz Railway that ran from Istanbul to Holy Mecca across Syria and Jordan.

Even the Europeans are buying the Iranian oil flowing through the Abadan-Tartus pipeline. They are also thinking of linking the European Gas Network with its Iranian counterpart. They have forgotten all about sanctions because the world always prefers to deal with winners.

On the Arab Gulf home front, young men are seething. They feel their governments let them down by failing to face up to the Iranian stratagem. The young men are in a sectarian tinderbox and buckling under economic stress. Extremism is rampant and the security services are busy hunting down extremist groups.

A nightmare, don’t you think?

That’s why I believe Saudi Arabia expressly will not allow Iran to win in Syria.

Iranian presence there proved a burden from the day Hafez al-Assad sealed his alliance with Iran’s Islamic Revolution as soon as it took over power 40 years ago.

Whereas the Syrian regime’s muscle under Hafez left a margin of balance and independence in the partnership, his son submitted totally to the Iranians and Hezbollah.

It is thanks to them Bashar is still alive and ruling a country in ruin. Instead of being their partner, he has become their subordinate.

The implication is that Iran’s presence in Lebanon and Syria now constitutes a clear threat to Saudi Arabia’s national security, and Turkey’s as well.

Consequently, Saudi Arabia must do something now, albeit alone. The kingdom’s security is at stake.

It will be good if the United States joined an alliance led by Saudi Arabia to bring down Bashar and return Syria to the Arab fold. But this should not be a precondition to proceed.

Let Saudi Arabia head those on board.

Let us put aside any misgivings about sequels of the Arab Spring, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s ambitions.

Let the objective be to bring down Assad fast.

The objective is bound to draw together multiple forces ranging from the Anbar tribes to Hamas to Egypt’s Brothers to Tunisia to the Gulf Countries.

That would entice Turkey to partake in the alliance. France could follow. And whether the United States does or does not breeze in is inconsequential. After all, it’s our battle and our security. U.S. security is not on the line. 

Iran presidential hopefuls’ window closing

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

On June 14, exactly five weeks from today, Iranians will flock to the polls to elect a new president to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Candidate registration started Tuesday and ends tomorrow, Saturday.

Iran’s Mehr news agency put the number of hopefuls who had already registered by Thursday night at 243.

An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was one candidate who joined them earlier today. By registering to run, lawmaker and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel becomes the first of a trio of Khamenei loyalists to do so.

Allied with Haddad-Adel, 68, are former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, 67, and Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, 51. Iranian media say two of them will step aside later in favor of whoever appears to have the best chance of winning the election.

Velayati is another top adviser to Khamenei on international affairs. He served as foreign minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and into the 1990s. He is a physician and runs a hospital in north Tehran.

Charismatic Tehran Mayor Ghalibaf is a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq War.

Among other candidates who registered on Friday was reformist Mohammad-Reza Aref, who served as vice-president under former moderate President Mohammad Khatami.

Khatami, who was elected in landslide victories in 1997 and 2001, has not made clear whether he will run this time.

Another prominent figure Hassan Rowhani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator and confidant to ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also put forward his name.

Rowhani's allies say he will withdraw his application if Rafsanjani decides to run for president.

Both Rafsanjani and Khatami, whose moderate candidacies would radically alter the contest, appear reluctant to stand unless given the nod from Khamenei but neither have ruled themselves out.

"I will not enter the field without his consent," Rafsanjani said this week, according to the Mehr news agency. "If circumstances are such that there will be conflicts and disputes between me and the leader, we will all lose."

More conservatives than reformists have put themselves forward as candidates, reports say.

The Guardian Council decides who can stand.

In 2009, 475 hopefuls registered as candidates, but the Guardian Council, whose 12 members are either directly or indirectly appointed by Khamenei, only gave its approval to four.

The final list of candidates will be unveiled later this month, around May 23.

"The rules set for the election excludes many who might have been able to stand under normal circumstances. The entire opposition, ranging from Communists to monarchists and passing by nationalists and liberals, are branded as 'enemies' and excluded," Amir Taheri writes today in his weekly column for the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat.

Taheri, who was executive editor-in-chief of Kayhan daily in Tehran from 1972 to 1979, authored 11 books and was named International Journalist of the Year by the British Society of Editors and the Foreign Press Association in the annual 2102 British Media Awards, writes in part:

Half of the population -- women -- is barred from running. Only men can register as candidates.

Although legally recognized as religious minorities, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians -- altogether numbering around one million altogether -- are also excluded. So are 300,000 from the Baha’i Faith, on grounds of belonging to an  "illegal" religious minority.

Being Muslim is not enough to make you eligible to run for president. Iranian Sunni Muslims, believed to number around 12 million, are barred from running.

“The would-be candidates must be Shiite Muslims,” the Interior Ministry declares.

Not all Shiite denominations are accepted. The “Seveners” or Ismailis are excluded, as are Zaidis, not to mention smaller esoteric offshoots of Shiism.

However, being a “Twelver” (Ithna’ashari) is not enough either. The candidate must be a political or religious figure and believe in the core tenets of the Islamic Republic. This means, for instance, a businessman, an opera singer or a taxi driver, cannot seek the presidency.

Clearly, such conditions would give the authorities ample opportunity to block the candidacy of figures considered a threat to Khamenei.

This is not about electing a president in the normal sense of the term. It is about choosing a “yes-man” for the “Supreme Guide...”

Iran, “Ayatollah Morsi” and Obama’s extended hand

Portraits of the writers by Tehran Times (top) and image grabs of their letter as published by Fars

While Barack Obama keeps his hand extended to talk Iran into scaling back its nuclear ambitions, Tehran is urging Mohamed Morsi to set up an Islamic theocracy in Egypt.

Some 17 Iranian Establishment figures have formally offered to help the Egyptian president duplicate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system of governance in his country.

Their written offer, penned in Arabic, was made public today by Iranian news agency Fars.

The 17 Iranian scholars, ulema and politicians include former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, currently the senior advisor on International Affairs to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, notable Shiite figure Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaqiq Damad, and Farhad Rahbar, chancellor of the University of Tehran.

The gist of what the Iranians figures tell Morsi is this:

We witnessed the Iranian people successes ensuing from the Islamic Revolution’s victory under the late Imam Khomeini. We also witnessed the experiences Iran gained in its bitter struggles against Zionism and World Arrogance in the 34 years since the Islamic Revolution.

From such a perspective, we put forward the following:

• The developed world’s material successes have been innumerable, but it still faces countless crises for straying from the veracity of Islam.
• The West is now rediscovering the centrality of religion and the importance of upholding its role and values in society.
• The principles of Islam are a reference point to all problems whether at national or international levels.
• Faith and belief in divine power allow humans to be successful and happy in life and in their afterlife.
• Any system of governance that formulates its policies, builds its institutions and devises its plans under divine guardianship is bound to succeed.
• The Islamic Republic of Iran set forth on the basis of the centrality of Islam and its permeation of all government organs and affairs of its executive, legislative and judicial branches.
• The Islamic Republic of Iran’s system of governance was put to a referendum in April 1979, when a 99.2% majority approved it. Seven months later, an overwhelming majority endorsed the ensuing constitution.
• The Iranian people have not looked back in the 34 years since. They struggled against World Arrogance and Islam’s enemies, maintained their independence from Western and Eastern powers and supported the downtrodden all-over the world, chiefly the oppressed Palestinian people.
• Iran’s political, economic, cultural and building accomplishments have been spectacular. Despite the eight-year (1980-1988) war (with Iraq) and economic and political sanctions, Iran has eradicated poverty in its urban and rural areas and made impressive scientific and hi-tech advances. It stayed the course throughout – first under the late Imam Khomeini and now under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
• Official statistics -- by UNESCO on the eradication of illiteracy, by Science-Metrix on trade volume and science and technology productivity, and by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) on industrial development -- attest to Iran’s sensational progress.

Iranian scholars, ulema and scientists reiterate their readiness to put the wealth of their knowledge and expertise at the service of your esteemed government and the honorable Muslim people of Egypt.

In light of the aforesaid, we urge Your Excellency -- as a wise doctrinaire at the helm of a country proud of its past and glorious Islamic civilization – to make Islam the underlying bedrock of running your state affairs.

Extended hand

Editorially, columnist Rajeh el-Khoury, writing today for the independent Lebanese daily an-Nahar, says he is astounded how U.S. President Obama is sticking to the policy of the “extended hand” to Iran without Tehran giving the slightest indication of “unclenching its fist.”

Obama has been trying to make diplomatic headway with Iran over its nuclear program for ages. The result has been a more defiant Iran.

Khoury suspects Washington and Tehran have been playacting all along.

“It is in America’s vital interest to keep the Iranian scarecrow in the Gulf and the region,” Khoury writes. Proof is a recent congressional report showing that weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Gulf Arab allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions.

When the P5+1 – the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – meet next with Iran, “Saeed Jalili, the Islamic Republic’s chief nuclear negotiator, and Wendy Sherman, his American counterpart, will share a big laugh because the playacting continues with matchless success.”  

U.S. diplomats squash Syrian opposition hopes

Ambassador Ford

 On the day President Barack Obama won his second term, American diplomats told participants in the Syrian opposition “jamboree” in Doha there would be no change in the Obama policy of refusing to intervene militarily or arm the resistance.

Instead, they said, Washington would seek a “political solution” to the carnage in Syria.

The American diplomats were named as U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and A. Elizabeth Jones, a former Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs and one-time U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Samir Nashar, one of the Syrian National Council (SNC) members who attended the meeting with Ford and Jones tells today’s edition of the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, “They plainly said the United States does not envisage a solution in Syria other than the political solution.”

Nashar added, “When we told the two diplomats such an American position will ruin the reputation of the United States among Syrians, their answer was: ‘You need to relay this to the Syrians in dozes – that the United States won’t intervene in Syria and they have no choice other than a political solution.’

Elizabeth Jones

“…We reiterated that -- despite (U.S.) criticisms of the SNC – we remain committed first and foremost to the Syrian revolution’s path and objectives, which foreclose any political solution that does not commence with Bashar al-Assad standing down.”

Political analyst Rajeh el-Khoury, writing for the independent Lebanese daily an-Nahar, describes Obama 2 as just “a carbon copy” of Obama 1.

“Barack Obama is back and nothing will change. We have a carbon copy of the U.S. president who will probably be less interested in foreign policy issues in order to focus during his second term on what James A. Baker calls America’s Titanic load of debt,” Khoury says.

“Look at Obama’s wavering and elusive policies vis-à-vis (1) the Libyan revolution (2) change in Egypt, which is now causing Washington a splitting headache, and (3) the revolution in Syria, where massacres and calamities multiply because of Russia’s malign alignment with the regime and America turning a blind eye to the bloodbath and cruelly denying arms to regime opponents. If we pondered all this, we would conclude that Obama 2 could only be like Obama 1… So don’t expect U.S. policy change. You won’t see it anytime soon.”

Zuhair Qusaybati, writing for the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, notes that many regional states and politicians are pinning false hopes on Obama’s second term. Some see him arming the Syrian opposition adequately to overthrow the regime by year’s end, or warning to cut aid to Israel if it did not stop the building of settlements and the judaization of Jerusalem, or inviting Ali Khamenei to the White House to end the tug-of-war over Iran’s nuclear file and share spheres of influence in the ‘Shiite Crescent’ region.”

All this is wishful thinking, says Qusaybati, because the Obama administration’s “pullout from the region will from here on enter its second stage. So there is no good news on the way for the Syrians. Chances of the U.S. arming the opposition are low and the likelihood of military intervention is nil. Syria is abandoned to its fate. The balance of power will be decided on the ground -- at a prohibitive cost…”

Barack Obama in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar

Protesters in Tehran yesterday

Iran’s rial is in a tailspin, having lost more than half of its value against the dollar in street trading in the past two months as U.S. and European sanctions aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear program bite.

Riot police yesterday fired tear gas and sealed off parts of downtown Tehran after the currency’s plunge triggered street protests.

The current rate of 35,500 rials against the U.S. dollar, compared with 24,000 a week ago on the unofficial street trading rate, which is widely followed in Iran. It was close to 10,000 rials for $1 in early 2011.

At Tehran's Grand Bazaar -- the traditional business hub in Iran's capital – currency exchange shops closed down to protest the instability in exchange rates and prices that made trading almost impossible.

The sprawling bazaar has played a critical role in charting Iran's political course - leading a revolt that wrung pro-democratic concession from the ruling monarchy more than a century ago and reportedly bankrolling the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Leave Syria alone, think of us instead" was one of the slogans protesters wrote on placards, according to Kaleme.com, an Iranian opposition site.

Other slogans raised according to Kaleme.com were, "We Do Not Want Nuclear Energy" and "Leave Syria Now.”

The Iranian economy is finding it difficult to cope with the West’s economic sanctions, but the extensive financial aid to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has not stopped.

The Times of London reported this week that Tehran has transferred some $10 billion to Damascus in support of Assad's war on the Syrian opposition.

But in a think piece titled “Obama in Tehran’s Bazaar,” political analyst Zuhair Qusaibati suggests the rial is in a tailspin because of the success of Obama administration’s Iran policy more than anything else.

“Tehran’s bazaar did not close in protest against the rivers of blood in Syria or against the Syrian regime’s diehard though futile attempts” to finish off the Syrian revolution, Qusaibati writes for the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

“Nor did the bazaar close in solidarity with the Axis of Resistance (comprising Iran, Syria and Lebanon’s Hezbollah), which is now on the earthquake’s first fault line stretching from Damascus to Baghdad and all the way to Tehran.

“The bazaar did not protest the economic fallout on a ‘Great Power’ still lacking nuclear teeth of funding the Syrian regime’s war.”

The war on the rial is what closed Tehran’s shops, according to Qusaibati. And American soft power is what returned riot police to Tehran’s streets.

“The bazaar shutdown is a windfall for President Barack Obama as it would enhance his reelection chances in November. He is the one who brushed aside Benjamin Netanyahu’s blackmail, insisting that economic sanctions on the Iranian regime were beginning to bite, thus making the costly military option redundant.”

Qusaibati notes, “Recourse to sanctions to choke the Iranian economy and dry up regime funding for its offshoots abroad is probably the Obama Administration’s sole foreign policy achievement.

“The Syrian revolution that took everyone by surprise, including the Americans, presented Obama with a golden opportunity to seize the moment and give his administration every chance to dismantle the Axis of Resistance without firing a shot or deploying Marines to the Arabian Sea and Syria’s shores.”

Sanctions, says Qusaybati, are what caused the Iranian currency to plummet to record lows, inflamed the tug of war between tottering President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his nemesis, parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, and triggered the first street protests in the Iranian capital since the demise of the Iranian Green Movement.

“The Iranian Spring might not await the rial’s total collapse, or the unlikely bankruptcy of the self-styled ‘Great Power’ so long as it can dip into the hard currency kitty of its proxy, Iraq.

“The Iranian Spring, for Ali Khamenei, might be the other face of the storm Syrian President Bashar al-Assad once discounted because ‘Syrians cling to their leadership.’”

Qusaibati concludes, “Tehran funds its nuclear program, the battle to salvage Syria’s regime and its endeavors in Mediterranean territory to remain a stone throw’s away from Israel, leaving most Iranians struggling economically.”

Much as Khamenei keeps regurgitating slogans about “resistance against Zionism” while tyrants crack down on their peoples with Zionists gloating over their enemies’ stupidity, he will fail to convince protesters in Tehran that Western leeches are sucking their national currency.

“Iran is not Syria, but borders don’t hinder either spring or autumn. The enemies Ahmadinejad has been expecting in the Gulf and Straits of Hormuz continue to wager their money on sanctions.”

Is Iran’s Khamenei set to blemish the Hajj?

King Abdullah laying the foundation stone to expand the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina (SPA)

A call by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Muslims making the Hajj to protest the U.S.-made anti-Islam film defaming Prophet Muhammad risks marring this year’s pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Iranian media quoted Khamenei was instructing Iranian Hajj officials in Tehran yesterday, “The wrath of Muslims towards the ‘Arrogance Front’ should be displayed in Hajj, which is the center of congregation of all Muslims from across the world.”

The Hajj – the annual pilgrimage in which some three million Muslims converge on Mecca – is one of the five pillars of Islam that must be performed at least once in a lifetime by all Muslims able to do so.

The peak of this year’s Hajj is expected to take place on or near October 26.

While the Hajj has not been marred by violence since 1987, this year’s pilgrimage comes amid heightened tensions between Shiite Iran and Sunnite Saudi Arabia, chiefly over the Syria war, the unrest in Bahrain, militant Shiite politics in the Gulf, and the viselike grip of Iran’s surrogates on Iraq and Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly warned pilgrims over the years not to stage protests at the Hajj, a challenge to Tehran, which believes the event has spiritual plus political dimensions.

In 1987, Iranian pilgrims clashed with Saudi police during an anti-U.S. protest at the Hajj, resulting in the deaths of 402 people.

There have been no major Shiite protests since then.

In 2007, when bilateral relations were better, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the Hajj himself. But he stayed away from a rally held by several hundred Iranian pilgrims.

After the protest by Iranian pilgrims during the 1987 Hajj, Saudi Arabia set a quota of 1,000 pilgrims per million inhabitants in each Islamic country. 

This gives Iran today a quota of some 74,000 pilgrims.

Given the tensions, is Khamenei ramping up toward another clash? Possibly not, but don’t be surprised if there is one.

Saudi King Abdullah, for his part, yesterday laid the foundation stone for the largest expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

The three-phased project will increase the mosque’s capacity to 800,000 worshippers in the first phase.

Egypt’s Morsi deals Assad a body blow from Tehran

Morsi addressing the NAM summit in Tehran

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi poured cold water today on Iran’s frenzied endeavors to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad afloat.

With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seated by his side, Morsi told the opening session of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran the “oppressive” Assad regime has “lost its legitimacy” and must go.

Egypt, he said, stands behind the Syrian people and their struggle for “dignity, freedom” and “a new Syria.”

“Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty, and a political and strategic necessity,” Morsi said.

“We all have to express our full solidarity with the struggle of those seeking freedom and justice in Syria, and translate this sympathy into a clear political vision that supports a peaceful transition to a democratic system of governance that reflects the demands of the Syrian people for freedom.”  

Morsi’s remarks certainly did not sit well with his Iranian hosts who remain committed to Assad, and caused the Syrian delegation to leave the conference hall.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later accused Morsi of using his speech to incite further bloodshed in Syria.

Significantly, the Syrian delegation to the NAM summit walked out as soon as Morsi addressed the Syrian issue in his speech.

It was the third time in a week that the Egyptian president specifically called for showing Assad the door.

Speaking to Reuters before travelling this week to China and Iran, two countries which, along with Russia, have so far opposed Arab and Western calls to end Assad’s rule, Morsi said, “Now is the time to stop this bloodshed and for the Syrian people to regain their full rights and for this regime that kills its people to disappear from the scene… There is no room to talk about reform, but the discussion is about change.”

Yesterday again, the French presidency said the Egyptian president agreed in a telephone conversation with François Hollande that there could be no political solution for Syria “without the departure of Bashar al-Assad.”

But Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would have none of that. He told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting on the eve of the summit: “The bitter truth about Syria is that a number of governments have compelled the groups opposing the Syrian government to wage war on it at their behest.”

Thus, Khamenei said, “prevention of arms shipment to irresponsible (opposition) groups” is the sine qua non of a solution in Syria.

Assad himself was meanwhile telling his cousin’s Addounia TV in an interview aired yesterday that he was “fighting a regional and global war, so time is needed to win it.” He said, “Defections are a positive process. Generally, it is self-cleansing of the state and the nation.”

“Cleaning, Cleansing and the Shiite Crescent” is the title Lebanese political analyst Zuhair Qusaybati chooses for his op-ed published today by the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

After the “cleansing” process assumed by warplanes, tanks and missiles left about 4,000 Syrians dead this month, Qusaybati writes, it took someone like Gen. Salar Abnoush, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “Saheb el-Amr” unit to lay bare Iran’s unbridled involvement in the Syria violence.

"Today we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a cultural one as well," Gen. Abnoush told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday.

No wonder, Qusaybati writes, that Assad remains confident of stifling the opposition, even at the price of tens of thousands of fatalities.

Moreover, “isn’t Tehran always in the habit of saying what it doesn’t do and doing what it wouldn’t say as regards confessional incitement liable to destroy Muslim countries?”

Since Khamenei chooses to lambast the West’s “arrogance” at every opportunity, how come he never mentions the “arrogance” of Russia and its lock-jawed reaction to the daily killings of children in Syria? Qusaybati asks.

How can Iran offer with one hand to reconcile the Syrian opposition and the regime and deliver with the other hand hundreds of missiles to its ally in Damascus?

Qusaybati goes on to quote from a Wall Street Journal report this week about Iran sending troops to bolster the Assad regime:

In Tehran, Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar met Monday with several Iranian officials and expressed Syria's gratitude. “The people of Syria will never forget the support of Iran during these difficult times,” Mr. Haidar said, according to Iranian media.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in all state matters, has appointed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Forces, to spearhead military cooperation with Mr. Assad and his forces, according to an IRGC member in Tehran with knowledge about deployments to Syria.

The Quds Forces are the IRGC’s operatives outside Iran, responsible for training proxy militants and exporting the revolution's ideology. The U.S. blames the Quds Forces for terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Soleimani has convinced Mr. Khamenei that Iran’s borders extend beyond geographic frontiers, and fighting for Syria is an integral part of keeping the Shiite Crescent intact,” said the IRGC member in Tehran. The so-called Crescent, which came together after Saddam Hussein’s fall, includes Shiites from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria…

Qusaybati says Iraq has become a “major component” of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” alongside Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah. “The Iraqi opposition that toppled Saddam Hussein is now facing the twin-dictatorship of the proxy (a reference to Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki) and the principal (Iran). If not, who is hindering the unity of Iraq and its people? Who is bombing, killing, torturing and pillaging and smuggling Iraq’s cash?”

When Iran and the Assad regime speak of a “global war” on Syria, with Russia, China and Iraq remaining seated in the stands as spectators, it is no surprise seeing MIG-23’s chasing Syrian women and children all the way to their home basements.

How many more Arab children must die for Iran to fulfill its dream? Qusaybati asks.