The US influential think tank Brookings Institution has confirmed that Washington and its Middle Eastern allies are behind the ongoing turmoil in Syria and Iraq, backing both "moderate" rebels and extremists in order to change the balance of power in the region, Tony Cartalucci, a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher, noted.
"The operations [against Bashar al-Assad in Syria] also displayed a far improved level of coordination between rival factions, spanning from US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades, to moderate and conservative Syrian Islamists, to al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and several independent jihadist factions," Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, narrated.
For those who have been following the conflict from the very beginning, it is clear that "sweeping gains" made by the Syrian rebels and their Islamist counterparts mostly depended on covertly supplied arms, cash and equipment by the West through Saudi Arabia.
However, this strategy is nothing new to the United States: in 2007 it was "the admitted policy" of the Bush cabinet to arm sectarian extremists including the notorious al-Qaeda through various intermediaries, particularly, Riyadh, the expert noted.
"The fact that events in Syria are being accelerated, with Brookings itself admitting that "international and ideological differences," have been "pushed to the side," illustrates a palpable desperation among the West to finish the conflict in Syria in hopes of moving forward toward Iran before regional dynamics and Iran's own defensive posture renders moot the West's entire regional agenda, jeopardizing its long-standing hegemony across North Africa and the Middle East," Toni Cartalucci underscored.
Tony Cartalucci emphasized that if Damascus is ultimately defeated, Tehran will face "an entire nation handed over to al-Qaeda" and other Sunni extremists daydreaming about disposing of Iran.
"The conflict in Syria is but a single battle among a much larger war — a global war constituting what is basically a third World War, fought not upon vast but clearly defined fronts, but rather through the use of fourth generation warfare, proxies, mercenaries, economics, and information," the expert warned.
The fate of Syria is now linked to the survival of many nations as well as the idea of multi-polarity itself, Mr. Cartalucci underscored, adding that Damascus' defeat may pose a threat to the concept of national sovereignty and to "the world as we know it."
