US officials: Iran is helping Syria’s Assad put down protests
Iran is providing Syria with gear to disperse the country’s pro-democracy protests and is helping Syrian security forces block and track Internet and cellphone use among protesters, according to unnamed US officials quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
Iran’s involvement, which could expand to other countries such as Bahrain, could challenge US and Saudi influence in the region, destabilize US allies, and heighten sectarian tensions, the Journal reported…
Syrian Army and security forces have brutally quashed most of the demonstrations, which call for an end to the country’s state of emergency and for other political reforms. While Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promised reforms and launched a committee to study lifting the country’s decades-long state of emergency, little change has materialized so far.
The US has long been concerned about Iranian influence in Syria, which serves as the main conduit through which Iran sends weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Obama administration has unsuccessfully attempted to woo Damascus away from Tehran.
US officials’ decision to disclose that they have been tracking Iran’s efforts in Syria was made partially to reassure its Arab allies and Israel, who worry that the US is supporting the popular uprisings without thinking about the political consequences. The power vacuums created by the fall of strongmen could give Iran a tremendous opportunity to expand its influence, the Journal reported.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that if Assad’s regime falls, Iran will work to install a leader even more hostile to Israel and the West, Saudi Arabia will try to sever all ties between Iran and Syria and bring Syria back into the mainstream Arab community, and the US and Israel will try to prevent the country’s leadership from falling into the hands of an Islamist group or anyone hostile to Israel.
The US is also concerned that overt Iranian assistance to Assad could escalate the Shiite-Sunni tensions in the region.
The complexities of the behind-the-scene relations of the uprisings are astounding if you analyse them… it’s all very cold war-esque, with multiple factions, Saudi Arabia, Israel/USA, Iran and the EU/NATO enabling and fighting proxy wars to meet their own wider political agendas and interests in the region; all pitted against the average man and woman on the street, the people who are actually doing the fighting and giving their lives, with the sole agenda of freedom.