Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi
Oftentimes, it is really challenging to explain politics, dear readers. It just doesn’t make sense!
Take for example, the Iraqi government’s uproar over the Turkish military presence in northern Iraq; the Syrian regime’s rejection of Saudi meddling in its affairs, the Houthi objection to Arab interference in Yemen, and the Russian and Iranian support of such allegations.
I would understand these stands if they were taken by upstanding parties, who practice what they preach … but!
Russia has always used force and pressure, including military intervention, to enforce positions, protect interests and serve strategic goals. In Afghanistan, Serbia, Georgia, Abkhazia, Ukraine and Syria, they did what interventionists do — meddle, influence and occupy.
More can be said of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since its founder, Ayatollah Khomeini (1979-1989) promised to export “Islamic” (Jafari Shiasm) revolution, and unite all Muslims, terrorism prospered. The Army of the Guardian of the Islamic Revolution (known also as the Revolutionary Guards or Pasdaran), which he created, has a foreign legion, “Felaq Alquds”, to export and support “Islamic” revolutions.
They formed militant proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Afghanistan, and as far as, Nigeria and Mali. Their mission is to spread Shiism, create social and economic networks to strengthen their resources and serve their followers, and to serve Iran’s interests. Among these entities was the Hezbollah franchise in Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; and Ansarallah in Yemen.
Terrorism was high on their agenda. They started by taking US diplomats hostage in its Tehran for 444 days (Nov. 4, 1979, to Jan. 20, 1981). Their assassins went on a campaign against Saudi diplomats, in the 1980s, in retaliation for Saudi stand in the Iraqi-Iranian war. Their terrorist missions reached as far as Argentina in 1994, when they bombed a Jewish center. In recent years, they attacked Jews in Bulgaria (2012) and attempted to bomb the Saudi Embassy and assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington (2011).
Hezbollah in Lebanon built its reputation in the eighties by kidnapping foreigners and staging suicide bombings of Western targets. They have been active in the drug business, too. Today, they are the biggest merchants of hashish and “Captagon" in the region. Some of their top customers, by the way, are Daesh (so-called IS), which uses Captagon pills to drug their operatives before going to dangerous and ugly missions.
Hezbollah has been providing training, support and guidance to other Farsi parties in the Arab world. In Yemen, they provided the Houthis with all the needed training, from political and speech coaching, to guerilla war, organization skills, religious preaching, down to drug and arms trafficking.
The same services were provided to Hezbollah Hejaz in Saudi Arabia. Ahmad Almogassel, the team leader of the Al-Khobar bombings (1996), that resulted in the killing and wounding of hundreds, including Americans, was caught recently as he entered Beirut on Hezbollah’s invitation, coming from Tehran, where he was hiding from FBI and Saudis, who were hunting for him for two decades. He was trained with his team by Hezbollah and sponsored by the Revolutionary Guards in the 1990s to execute terror acts in Saudi Arabia.
Hezbollah and Syria stand accused today by the International Court in the assassination campaign against Iran and Syrian opposition members, including Lebanese leader, Rafiq Al Hariri, in 2005. Other operations were executed or prevented in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In support of the Syrian regime, Hezbollah has joined the Revolutionary Guards, and its terrorist militias in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Strangely enough, these operations never included missions inside Israel, Iran’s, supposedly, sworn enemy.
Now, here is the irony. Russia, Iran and Syria, who have meddled for ages in others’ business, to the point of hegemony and outright occupation, are the loudest objectors, today. Iraq and Syria are becoming very selective in their outrage. Russians, Americans and Iranians are literally running their governments and dictating their policies, fighting and negotiating on their behalf, even complaining to the UN Security Council in their name.
Still, they found the face and voice to complain about Saudi Arabia hosting of the Syrian opposition conference (even though it was authorized by the Vienna Conference attended by both Russia and Iran).
The Iraqi government didn’t make a fuss when at least half a million Iranian pilgrims, accompanied by the Iranian police, stormed Iraqi borders without visas or proper documentation, two weeks ago. Not to mention the foreign Shiite militias leading the war on Daesh and Sunnis in Iraq, without even the pretense of coordinating with the Iraqi army.
However, when few hundred Turkish soldiers were invited by the Kurdish authority to train its fighters against Daesh they cried foul, raised the issue with the UN Security Council and Arab League. They made it a matter of principle to kick the Sunni Turks out, within 48 hours.
Sorry, dear readers, I don’t have an explanation for such outrageous double standards and ironies, except calling it hypocrisy at its worse.
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter: @kbatarfi
