“It seems impossible to me that an expanded attack against Syria would take place, and if it does, it will be limited to missile and air strikes to show the world that there is unity in the West with regard to the issue of Syria. But even such a limited attack would disrupt all equations in the Middle East.”
While mentioning the positions taken by western officials on Syria, Kharrazi stated, “In his first analysis of the issue, Obama stated that attacking Syria had its own higher interests and before engaging themselves they had to assess if such a move was in their interest or not. Hollande had also said that the attack must take place but after Russia’s opposition and the non-seriousness of the US, he said that there needs to be verification of this issue and that, in any international measure, inspectors must first carry out their research. Usually the West dispatches inspection groups to prepare the ground for any measure that it intends to take and then announces its own desired results and later apologizes for the mistakes they made in their investigation. Putin has also taken a stance with regard to this attack and called Syria a strategic ally of his country. But these positions are different from the ruling atmosphere of propaganda and the realities of the international scene.”
Kharrazi once again reiterated, “It seems impossible to me that an expanded war would take place in the region, but any attack has its own negative geopolitical and geostrategic ramifications and will disrupt the geopolitical calculations of the region.”
In response to another question regarding the impacts of a possible attack against Syria on the Islamic Republic of Iran, this experienced career diplomat of our country said, “The main objective behind the crisis in Egypt and Syria is to contain Iran. What has happened in Syria is that a new force with 25,000 militia volunteers has been formed under the command of Bandar bin Sultan, the head of the Saudi National Security Council. He is the same person who was behind the coup in Egypt. With the crimes that happened in Egypt and the deaths of many innocent people, they attempted to escape forward and create a new incident which they did in Syria; this is while it is against any political logic for the Assad regime itself to have used chemical weapons. This shows that another movement has organized this attack to escape forward. Through this chemical attack, they intended to provoke international sentiment and public opinion against Iran which supports Assad’s regime.”
In response to a question about whether our country is threatened by the developments in Syria or not, Kharrazi stated, “There is no threat against us. But we must always be alert; particularly since Iran has many geostrategic capacities and Iran’s containment by the West also has its own special rules and language of which the foreign policy officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran must be aware.”
With regard to Hezbollah’s reaction to the events in Syria, Kharrazi said, “Iran and Hezbollah do not want the Middle East region to be involved in crisis; but what is clear is that a new process is forming in the region and the crisis in Syria and the explosions in Lebanon are of the same nature and along this same line. It is interesting to know that last week a meeting was held with the presence of Walid Jumblatt, Samir Geagea, and Saad Hariri in the region during which it was agreed that a new militia force entitled the “Sunni Hezbollah” would be established alongside the Shiite Hezbollah. This measure is taken within the framework of creating insecurity in the region and in Lebanon. Therefore, Iran’s security is strategically connected to security in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and even Turkey.”
He further continued, “Basically, the Levant region and the political sphere of Turkey and Egypt are very important for us; the reason is that insecurity in these countries would mean the presence of the US, Israel, and the interference of Saudi Arabia.”
