An exerpt from Guardians of the Revoltion: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs, at Oxford University Press blog.
5 Replies to “The Iran-Syria Alliance”
Interesting article in terms of 80s-90s history but the Iranians are now having some ‘internal difficulties’ in maintaining their iron grip on the populace. http://torydrroy.blogspot.com/2009/07/protest-go-on-in-iran.html http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443771902&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The crowds were too large to contain – it seemed like everyone was out on the streets. I saw people parking their cars in the middle of the streets and joining the rest of us,” another witness said Thursday.
The demonstrations quickly turned grim. “The basiji were pulling people out of their cars and violently beating them, just because they were honking their horns in support of the protesters. But what really amazed me,” said one protester in a phone interview from Teheran, “is that we stood by each other. Many of us selflessly helped our brothers and sisters out on the streets.”
According to another witness from Thursday’s rally, demonstrators were taking refuge in mosques.
“Mullahs helped many frightened people who were running away from the security forces and tried to protect the people as best they could. When the basiji militiamen began to attack the people trying to get into one of the mosques, I saw a mullah pounding his fists into his chest in anger and screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Leave the children of God alone; be afraid of God.'”
The angry dissident went on, “Ali Khameini [the Iranian supreme leader] and his followers are not Muslims. They have created their own religion that condones the shedding of innocent blood and worships murder.”
Another source said, “It was like a battle zone. The policemen would lower their tear gas guns and fire at the people. Everyone would scream and retreat behind a line of parked cars in the middle of the street.”
He also spoke of protesters helping each other amid the turmoil.
“I saw an elderly woman and her son helping a complete stranger whose face was badly swollen and bruised. They told him that their house was nearby and they would take care of his injuries. It is hard for the people injured to get help elsewhere because now the embassies are not opening their doors for us and the hospitals are full of basijis. So the wounded are relying on the kindness and charity of others.”
It appears there are dark days in Iran. Given that this is a month after the supposed elections, this would appear to have some analogous parallels to ’20s-’30s Germany pitched street battles.
The ‘Death to potatoes!’ opposition mantra doesn’t seem to be going away as the mullahs had hoped, notwithstanding the brutal approach.
One would expect that should Iran descend into further turmoil the Iran Syria axis would suffer a rupture at some point, as these high tension alliances reach an inflection point.
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
From the excerpt:
“The strategic tensions underlying the Syria-Iran alliance became evident in Iraq. For Iran, the alliance proved nothing but beneficial. Beyond gaining an important source of weaponry, Syria’s closure of Iraq’s oil pipeline, which traversed its territory, inflicted an economic penalty on Baghdad.”
The true “blood-for-oil” battles within the region are far more insidious than any American-led invasion. News agencies could have a field day for next five years uncovering how Middle Eastern states screw each other over oil, if they had any integrity (and I’m not saying they do).
I don’t think this book is worth buying. On the surface it may seem improbable for a Shiite regime determined to redeem the region for the forces of religious virtue and a secular state devoted to pan-Arabism to come together
There is nothing surprising or improbable about this. The “secularist” tribe that is running Iraq has made a contract with “the religious” regime of Iran, for mutual benefit.
Study history, folks; then, today’s machinations are revealed, transparent. There’s nothing new under the Sun, as my father said.
wonderful retrospective!
ba’athist governments (syria and saddam’s iraq) were based on the stalinist methods) kill, kill and kill.
the following at the fourth paragraph… “The ensuing association with Syria reflected the Islamic Republic’s propensity to prioritize its ideological antagonisms.”…. could be translated as ‘politics makes strange bedfellows.’
this is even more difficult to comprehend (the political agenda shared by syria and iran) when we remember that when the ayatollahs came to power in iran – the first group to suffer a purge in iran were the communists. having played a major role in deposing the shah – it was the communists who found themselves caught up as “useful idiots”.
Interesting article in terms of 80s-90s history but the Iranians are now having some ‘internal difficulties’ in maintaining their iron grip on the populace.
http://torydrroy.blogspot.com/2009/07/protest-go-on-in-iran.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443771902&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The crowds were too large to contain – it seemed like everyone was out on the streets. I saw people parking their cars in the middle of the streets and joining the rest of us,” another witness said Thursday.
The demonstrations quickly turned grim. “The basiji were pulling people out of their cars and violently beating them, just because they were honking their horns in support of the protesters. But what really amazed me,” said one protester in a phone interview from Teheran, “is that we stood by each other. Many of us selflessly helped our brothers and sisters out on the streets.”
According to another witness from Thursday’s rally, demonstrators were taking refuge in mosques.
“Mullahs helped many frightened people who were running away from the security forces and tried to protect the people as best they could. When the basiji militiamen began to attack the people trying to get into one of the mosques, I saw a mullah pounding his fists into his chest in anger and screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Leave the children of God alone; be afraid of God.'”
The angry dissident went on, “Ali Khameini [the Iranian supreme leader] and his followers are not Muslims. They have created their own religion that condones the shedding of innocent blood and worships murder.”
Another source said, “It was like a battle zone. The policemen would lower their tear gas guns and fire at the people. Everyone would scream and retreat behind a line of parked cars in the middle of the street.”
He also spoke of protesters helping each other amid the turmoil.
“I saw an elderly woman and her son helping a complete stranger whose face was badly swollen and bruised. They told him that their house was nearby and they would take care of his injuries. It is hard for the people injured to get help elsewhere because now the embassies are not opening their doors for us and the hospitals are full of basijis. So the wounded are relying on the kindness and charity of others.”
It appears there are dark days in Iran. Given that this is a month after the supposed elections, this would appear to have some analogous parallels to ’20s-’30s Germany pitched street battles.
The ‘Death to potatoes!’ opposition mantra doesn’t seem to be going away as the mullahs had hoped, notwithstanding the brutal approach.
One would expect that should Iran descend into further turmoil the Iran Syria axis would suffer a rupture at some point, as these high tension alliances reach an inflection point.
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
From the excerpt:
“The strategic tensions underlying the Syria-Iran alliance became evident in Iraq. For Iran, the alliance proved nothing but beneficial. Beyond gaining an important source of weaponry, Syria’s closure of Iraq’s oil pipeline, which traversed its territory, inflicted an economic penalty on Baghdad.”
The true “blood-for-oil” battles within the region are far more insidious than any American-led invasion. News agencies could have a field day for next five years uncovering how Middle Eastern states screw each other over oil, if they had any integrity (and I’m not saying they do).
For a real expert on the Mideast and world situation regarding terrorism: http://www.freeman.org/bodansky.htm
I don’t think this book is worth buying.
On the surface it may seem improbable for a Shiite regime determined to redeem the region for the forces of religious virtue and a secular state devoted to pan-Arabism to come together
There is nothing surprising or improbable about this. The “secularist” tribe that is running Iraq has made a contract with “the religious” regime of Iran, for mutual benefit.
Study history, folks; then, today’s machinations are revealed, transparent. There’s nothing new under the Sun, as my father said.
wonderful retrospective!
ba’athist governments (syria and saddam’s iraq) were based on the stalinist methods) kill, kill and kill.
the following at the fourth paragraph… “The ensuing association with Syria reflected the Islamic Republic’s propensity to prioritize its ideological antagonisms.”…. could be translated as ‘politics makes strange bedfellows.’
this is even more difficult to comprehend (the political agenda shared by syria and iran) when we remember that when the ayatollahs came to power in iran – the first group to suffer a purge in iran were the communists. having played a major role in deposing the shah – it was the communists who found themselves caught up as “useful idiots”.