Pentagon Warns Of Russia-Iran “Nexus” In Syria: “We Assume Russia Is Coordinating With The Iranians”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
09/22/2015
To be sure, some manner of Russian intervention in Syria was probably inevitable.
As we explained on Monday, Syria is pivotal for the existing balance of power both regionally and globally speaking. The alliance between Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and Moscow, Tehran, and Hezbollah serves as a kind of counterbalance to cooperation among the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey (among others). Should the Assad regime be allowed to fall and the West allowed to influence the post-regime political outcome, the scales would tip, Russia would lose its naval base at Tartus, and Iran’s access to Hezbollah, not to mention the scope of its regional influence, would be severely constrained. Assad’s move to support the Islamic Pipeline while rejecting the Qatar-Turkey pipeline was a manifestation of this situation and speaks volumes about how critical Damascus is in Russia’s struggle to keep a tight grip on the supply of natural gas to Europe.
That said, the fight for Damascus comes at an interesting time for Russia. The annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s subsequent involvement in eastern Ukraine (which is of course the worst kept secret in the geopolitical universe), combined with economic sanctions and the antitrust suit filed by the EU against Gazprom have served to create the most contentious relationship between The Kremlin and the West since the Cold War. One can look at that two ways. On the one hand, the prevailing dynamics in Europe might fairly be expected to make Moscow think twice before charging headlong into Syria, where the US and its allies have been operating both overtly and covertly for years, knowing that any involvement will only serve to inflame what is already a rather delicate situation. On the other hand, Vladimir Putin isn’t exactly known for being timid and indeed, it certainly seems as though Moscow (and Beijing for that matter) is intent on returning the world to some semblance of bipolarity after three decades of unobstructed US hegemony. When considered in that light, it wasn’t too difficult to predict Russia’s entry into Syria’s civil war in support of its ally in Damascus.
But even as Russia’s involvement was never a matter of if, it was, until recently, still a matter of when. Although Moscow likely didn’t need much in the way of convincing, the Pentagon now suggests (as we did last week) that a July meeting between Vladimir Putin and Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani (who allegedly commands not only the various Shiite militias battling ISIS in Iraq, but also the Houthi rebels fighting the Saudis in Yemen and whose rumored removal from the sanctions list as part of the Iran nuclear deal prompted Benjamin Netanyahu to proclaim that Obama’s “absurdity crosses all lines”) may have been instrumental in deciding the official start date for Russia’s intervention. Here’s more from WSJ:
The Rest…HERE
