In the seven-year-old Syrian war, the second phase is now beginning. As shown by the latest missile raids on Aleppo and Hama targeting Iranian and Syrian government positions, on one hand it will be a conflict consisting in military actions by Israel and the West against Iran in Syria, and on the other hand they will resort to a type of punitive diplomacy to try to impose new sanctions on Tehran. Trump is preparing on May 12 to walk away from the nuclear deal with Tehran.
The agreement was signed with the “5+1” countries in July 2015, and now Macron and Merkel’s Europe is defending it up to a certain point, while saying that in any case, it’s ready to negotiate another.
Everyone is speaking as if the agreement has been violated by the Iranians. Actually, it is the United States that is not complying with the deal by imposing secondary sanctions on European banks granting loans to Iran.
They have also blocked loans for procurement taken out by Italian companies (worth around $25-30 billion).
But these are just details, because international law and agreements, from Europe to Asia, are no longer worth the paper they’re printed on—as the case of the US tariffs shows.
It will be interesting to see if the economic battles being waged by Washington will in fact manage to break down the West in the medium term, worse than any ideology of the past, and return Europe to its role as a continent fully separated from America—with NATO its only tie—as it was on the eve of World War II.
Atlantic solidarity is holding up well for now, at least when it comes to striking up new conflicts in the Mediterranean, for which Syria is a test case, with the option, if Israel wants to do so, to broaden its scope all the way to Lebanon, run by Hezbollah, the Shiite “Party of God,” an ally of the Iranian Islamic Republic.
Even the mealy-mouthed Italian politicians, busy to keep all their domestic interests satisfied, should start paying attention, because over 1,000 Italian soldiers are stationed in the south of Lebanon, on the Blue Line, as part of the 4,500 peacekeepers of the UNIFIL UN mission, all led by the Italian mountaineers of the Alpine Brigade Julia.
In 2006, when the Hezbollah-Israel conflict broke out, Italy was at the center of international mediation for a cease-fire. Our then-Foreign Minister took a historic walk through the rubble of the southern suburbs of Beirut.
His name was Massimo D’Alema. But who is he compared to the bright stars of our politics today? What will be done this time if explosions start ringing out in the skies above the Blue Line? We can be certain, at least, that they will find a way to avoid making themselves look too bad.
For now, we note in particular the emergence of an increasingly solid axis between the United States and its allies, France and Britain, and the Jewish state, which is not missing a beat in taking advantage of it. Quite the opposite.
This is well demonstrated by the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, live on global television, accused Iran: “We have evidence of a secret nuclear program.”
Actually, aiming to destroy the delicate peace agreement initiated by Obama and the European leadership, Netanyahu has dusted off the same skit from before, showing images, many of which had already been shown to the US Congress more than a year ago.
Illustrative were also the threats made earlier by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who stressed that the Israelis are ready at any moment to unleash raids and missile attacks, threats for which support was immediately offered by the new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
The new US Secretary of State also gave justifications for the dozens dead during the Gaza protests, stating that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” a well-worn refrain which confirms the double standard of American policy in the Middle East: in short, “Israel First.” Those who accept this slogan are to be considered as friends, and those who reject it will fare badly. Even Putin himself learned the lesson: in order to keep the oligarchs under control and under pressure from international sanctions, he needs the support that the business world of the Jewish state can offer him.
In short, there is now an Atlantic-Israeli axis that dictates the new agenda in the Middle Eastern wars.
The oversight of this second chapter of the Syrian conflict has been entrusted to Israel, which, after having its US embassy moved to Jerusalem and having obtained American recognition of it as the capital of the Jewish state against all UN resolutions, has officially become the American policeman in the region—just like in the times of Shah Reza Pahlavi, when Iran was the guardian of a Gulf beholden to the US.
Then the reckoning arrived, and it has lasted for nearly 40 years, since the 1979 Revolution and the taking of hostages from the US embassy in Tehran on November 1979. An era of destabilization began, followed by the war with the USSR in Afghanistan.
Today’s message is clear: green light for Kim Jong-un, who will meet with Trump in a setup carefully orchestrated by the Beijing-Pyongyang-Seoul triangle, but regime change for Iran—a country of questionable leadership, but which is strongly defending its own sovereignty—in favor of Israel’s strategic supremacy in the region.
If anyone is still wondering who is actually benefiting from Donald Trump being in the White House, there you have it.
