Tehran’s Growing Anger
“The first objective of the Unite States in creating this criminal current (ISIL) is to portray a distorted image of Islam and this has been achieved through the perpetration of inhumane and savage crimes and their publication by the world media,” Naqdi said, referring to recent beheadings of American and British citizens by ISIL.
“The second objective is to create rift, animosity and war between the Shia and Sunni,” Naqdi added. (Press TV, 14 September)
Note: Since ISIL’s rapid advances in eastern Syria and western Iraq, beginning with the occupation of Mosul in June, and the establishment of the Islamic Sate, the state-run Iranian media has vigorously portrayed ISIL as a tool of the United States in the region.
Naqdi’s remarks is the clearest sign that the conspiracy theory regarding ISIL is being publicly elevated to an official line of the Islamic Republic. It is hard for Tehran to admit that the IRGC and the Shia militias under the command of its foreign legion, the Quds Force, are fighting Sunni militants in Syria and Iraq. After all, the Quds Force means the “Jerusalem Force,” for liberating Jerusalem, not killing fellow Muslims. So it would be very convenient for them if people started believing that the White House was running the ISIL, and the Iranians were defending Islam in their fight against Americans, and not Shia soldiers and militias killing Sunnis.
Naqdi’s comments are also manifestation of Tehran’s anger at recent events in the region. The post-U.S. invasions political order, which so much favored Iran, is falling apart, and rather rapidly. Assad, who was to scare the Israelis away from attacking Iran, has been bogged down in a bloody war and lost almost half the country. IRGC and Naqdi’s own Basij forces deployed across Syria, as large as they are, and their comrades in the Syrian intelligence, could not even detect and warn Baghdad of pending ISIL insurgents moving toward Mosul in June, mostly from Syria.
The government in Iraq, which had become a client state of Iran, fell and the new government in Baghdad, with much more pronounced Sunni and Kurdish influence than before, is now practically only in control of southern Iraq. The Shia Crescent is not rising. The U.S. is back in Iraq, and probably soon in Syria. The nuclear deal is not advancing, and the country’s economy, which was in a stalemate, now needs to support IRGC and Naqdi’s Basij forces in two very expensive wars: deploying large numbers of military and intelligence operators, as well as heavy ground and air equipment; funding the growing number of Shia militias; supplying arms; supporting Damascus with oil and financial assistance; and all other expenses, like transportation and communication, necessary in modern warfare. And the Iranians, after all this, are not even invited to Paris Conference on ISIL. And General Naqdi and his comrades are angry, and it shows.
File photo: Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of Iran's Basij Force. (IRNA)
18 comments:
Naqdi is as stupid as he looks. But I wouldn't say Iran's role is diminishing, even though its classical allies are now weakened. Iran is now stirring up trouble in Yemen to compensate. You wanna bet they're working on other parts of the Middle East too? This puts Iran, one way or another, in a position where it can make more, and not less, demands, because to solve these problems the U.S would have to, one way or another, come to strategic terms with Tehran. Otherwise Iran will, like always, be a terrible pain in the ass and stir up even more trouble in very vital regions of the Middle East.
Besides, if the nuclear deal, which benefits the West as much as it benefits Iran, works, Iran will be in a position to do exactly what you say it can't do; project more power and fund its wars around the Middle East, which is what Arabs fear the most (there's a reason why they're doing their best, along with Israel, to sabotage the talks). I think the Iranian leadership has accordingly decided that its economy today is more important than procuring a nuclear weapon.
Wasn't this man born in Najaf Iraq?
We've something of an analog here in the United States, where the U.S. Treasury Department maintains that Iran is allied with Al-Qaeda, identifying the IRGC-QF as a supporter of the AQ network.
Obviously American sensibilities are offended when we hear from official Iranian sources that "ISIL is supported by the United States;" as I imagine Iranian sensibilities are offended when they hear from official American sources that "Al-Qaeda is supported by Iran."
Mark, no comparison. Naqdi and the Iranian officialdom are saying that the U.S. did create the ISIL, and the White House is the HQ for the ISIL, meaning the U.S. is commanding the ISIL in their advances and actions. I believe aside from the obvious political problems the ISIL creates for the Iranians, as discussed in the post, as in Iranian forces and their Shia militias killing Sunnis, the comments could also be a manifestation of Naqdi's delusional world view.
It is once again very important to understand the different sphere of interests in Iran and the power struggles inside the country. Without that understanding the US and the West cannot find the right people to deal with and actually they can lose whatever people left inside Iranian power tower with a balanced view. There is an "Arab" oriented minority inside the Iranian elite which has great grip on the Armed forces and the political elite. These include Iranians born in Arab countries (bear in mind these people are ethnic Iranians) and Iranian-Arabs who because of Islamic (per default more Arabic focus due to the origin of Islam) focus of the regime got the upper hand early on due to their mastery of the Arabic language, connections with Arabs (mainly Shias in Iraq) and understanding of the Arab culture and world. Amongst these, you have the Larijani brothers who are more "prominent" (if that word can be used for these people) and technocrats like Shamkhani or the mob king Naqdi. These people in general enjoy high level of influence in Iran as they are the main connectors between Iran's clerical elite and their image and fans in the Arab world. It is important to understand that these people in general have a different view of Iran than the average Iranian guy who normally are more patriotic. The anti-US and anti-West slogans in Iran are very much backed by this group and it is important they get singled out and isolated by the US in order to better address the true Iranian view on the relations with the West.
The Islamic Republic was not formed on divisions among Arabs and Persians, this analysis is incorrect. The Arabs have not ruled Iran since the early days of Islamic caliphates. For the past two or three centuries, the central power were concentrated mainly in Turkic tribes and the kings had Turkish heritage. Even the Shah was half Turk, his mother and Reza Shal's wife was a Qajar . Khomeini was the first non-Turkic leader from central Fars region of Iran in many generations. Khamenei comes from Turkish heritage. I don't know where you got this idea of power in the hands of Arab-Iranians. They are a minority that have been discriminated against for many, many years; for their Arab heritage and for their normally Sunni religion.
your attempt at comparison is wholly defective and simply more of your reflexive and churlish attempts to deflect criticism from the ignorant and vile persons who serve as officers of the Iranian theocracy
The us and its pgc allies certainly helped to create isis thru their meddling and support for terror groups in syria but any control they ever had over isis and other terror groups was minimal to non existent at best as these groups now threaten western/pgc interests,the sad thing is that the us still thinks that it can deal with isis and associated islamist terror groups without any agreement/coordination with the iranian and syrian governments while still supporting the "moderate" islamist head choppers in syria.Its just more of the same western blundering and policy incompetence that is par for the course in the m.e
Nader,he meant Shia Iraqis that are part of the ruling regime in todays Iran.Being Shia first instead of Iranian first is want matters to these people.The Arab-Iranians in Iran are good people who love their country.
Part 1
Nader, I think you didn't understand my post (the Iranian-Arab sphere) and you go immediately into this "American style of" analyzing things "minortiy-majority" and also start defending the Iranian inclusiveness etc. even go as far as calling Shah half Turk etc. I really don't care about these things to be honest there are some flaws in what you say, but that is not my topic. My topic is that if you are Japanese and you have lived in Indonesia for 100 years and suddenly a revolution comes to place in Japan and you occupy the top posts such as Speaker of Parliament, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense, Head of National Defense Paramilitia etc. then people inside Japan has the right to say there is an "Indonesian born tendency" inside the government. I just put this imaginary example to just come away from your "minority-majority" and ethno racial sensitiveness which was not the intention of my post. What I am trying to say is that there is a high degree of density of these individuals and inside Iran, in the slang term, they call it the "Arab maffia". This doesn't mean these people are from Jordan or Egypt, but rather from areas inside Iran which are close to borders with Arab lands. These people are not Khorasani, or Baluchi, as such this particular sphere of power is called "The Arab mafia" due to the fact tha many of them are either not born inside the current borders of Iran, but rather in areas which have been under Arab rule with Arabic as the main language or they are from border areas inside Iran with stark Arab influence. This is a fact and it is not incorrect. You can call it Shia, but that is not correct, you have Shia in Pakistan and Azarbaijan as well, that is not a correct term.
What I tried to say was that even inside the cleric world of Iran, this heavy power grabbing by this category of Iranians is seen by some suspicious. Clerics in private meetings complain and they actually expected Ayatollah Khamenei to address this and not extend Larijani for yet another 4 years.This is because the traditional Iranian clerics see some of the views regarding anti Human Rights and the daily cracking of people due to religious reasons attributed to some of the clerics who "don't have an Iranian view of the Shiitism", as such they would like to re-stress that the center of gravity of Shiitism is Iran and no where else with its particular view on certain of reality. This is because they know the Iranian social mindset and as such want to avoid the increasing internal tension with the population of Iran.
Part2 (cont. from above)
Besides that they are worried about this particular groups increasing political, military and mainly financial power. Many people even inside the current regime are worried about the power concentration of this "Arab" (or whatever you want to call it) sphere and they think it is counter productive for the regime.
I think what you refer to as "where I got the idea of Arab Iranians being in power" you refer to the average Abadani or Ahwazi guy on the street, but I refer to a particular top echelon some of whom are not even born inside Iran occupying top positions.
With regards to what you talk about everyone knows that people living on border areas in Iran, or as people love to tag them in the West "minorities" have during the modern era from the cold war and until now being stimulated to rebel against the central government. During the cold war it was the Soviet Russia who put up leftist (ethno-centric) organization in Iranian Azarbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan, Iranian Baluchestan and also Iranian Turkmen. After the cold war it is now the British who mainly back up the Ahwazi group and the Americans back up pseudo religious groups (once again with ethno-centricity) as per their Gladio operation which Iran is fully aware of and which Iran has been able to continuously neutralize as it knows it is not mainly due to discrimination these extremist groups pop up.
25,000 US troops to uproot Assad and install a democratic government in Syria. Akhoonds are loosing their grip. They can't do anything short of a conventional war i.e. boots on the ground to try stop the Americans. We all know who's gonna win...
I would like to reply,but my commentary will not be posted, so I'll just keep my opinion to my self.
replying [1] PIRUZ AND ]2] USKOWI
[1] Piruz-
YOU have your own standard of measuring peoples wisdom,and it is evidently sad that Naqdi by his sheer looks is not among them.YET you can not offer a good and logical reply to what He is saying.Now before we come to your accusations on the IRI ,LET see the broader picture of what the general is saying. @-WILL YOU deny that it is the US that created the Taliban ?-Hope you KNOW better .So, that mujahedin outfit was created by the CIA in their cold blood feud with the USSR. When the CIA trained these militants on how to use the stinger man pads and other vital high tech military tools to defeat the Soviets,it is very illogical to imagine that these US trainers were working without the consent of the white house then.
@-WILL YOU deny that it is the US that is training the militants in Jordan ?-hope you will dis-agree and point to the official US classifications that those trained in Jordan are 'moderates screened Syrians oppositions elements' !-.The US announces on and on that it gives the insurgents lethal arms -Now these good democracy fighters cross the border to Syria to become Islamic militants.
The US created the Taliban -crushed it and settled in Afghanistan,-this time they crated the ISIS will crush it and make permanent bases in SYRIA,so you are blindly roasting the General.
[NADER]
It is not possible to convince you ,because you have your own things which you hold dear like accusing the IRI on virtually every move it makes.Another thing is your blind support of the BOD even on many cases-seems that you decided that the US does not err ,.You easily mock Iran's military failure to detect the advance of ISIS in June!.But if someone will accuse the 'super power's MILITARY intelligence in Afghanistan for sleeping on the job as to allow illiterate Talibans crawling on a mountain side to shoot down a very advanced US military helicopter killing the Navy seals , i know i will get some rebuke from you !.Yet the question is why did not the US military detect these illiterate Taliban militants on the other side of the hill ?.
I am sorry if I misunderstood your comments, and thanks for posting new ones.
You have commented about my American-style analysis. The Iranian society in fact resembles America and its melting pot probably more than any other country in the region, and that’s its beauty. People with different national or tribal heritage, different languages, and different religion have for long lived on the land, intermarried, and made the fabric of the present day Iran. So much so, that it would be difficult to imagine separating them, as in the case, let’s say, of Azeris who have lived and worked in Tehran for ages. This does not mean that there were not, or are not, discrimination based on nationality or language. Arab-Iranians, for example, are among the minority groups who have been discriminated against probably the most. But in Iran-Iraq war, they defended Iran and proved many people with racist tendencies wrong.
Admiral Shamkhani is an Arab-Iranian, born and raised in Khuzistan, who has held senior positions in the government, but that's an exception. You have mentioned other government officials who were born or lived in Arab countries. This is natural, and the numbers will rise, as many Iranians are studying and living abroad in our shrinking globe, including former, current and future officials who have lived many years in the West.
This post was about ISIL, and this blog is about Iran. If you want to participate in discussions regarding the Taliban and the U.S. experience in Afghanistan, there are many good blogs concentrating on those issues, we are not one of them.
I did not mock Iran's military. If anything, this blog has been a place to highlight the Iranian military developments. You seem capable of saying anything to score a point, that's sad. Here I offered a critique of the Iranian military for its failure to detect ISIL's move into Iraq last June. After all, the Quds Force, the IRGC, and Iranian intelligence agencies (military and civilian) were actively and deeply involved in the Syrian civil war and should have detected ISIL's move, mostly from Syria, into Iraq to capture Mosul. I am sure the Iranian military leadership understands this criticism and must be upset at that major intelligence failure.
If you have a point refuting what I said about intelligence failure, you are very welcome, as always, to post them here. But in your comments above, you are not talking about the content of my post, and instead have started baseless attacks on this blogger; and that's shameful. Respond to the message, don't attack the messenger. But you can't make that distinction, can you?
Nader UskowiSeptember 15, 2014 at 3:01 PM
"the IRGC, and Iranian intelligence agencies (military and civilian) were actively and deeply involved in the Syrian civil war and should have detected ISIL's move, mostly from Syria, into Iraq to capture Mosul. I am sure the Iranian military leadership understands this criticism and must be upset at that major intelligence failure"
How do you know that they didnt detect it?,where is your proof for this statement?,it seems to me that the failure lies with the baghdad government who failed to take the jihadi threat seriously and the traitorous sunni military not with iranian intelligence,iran could`ve supplied baghdad with all the intel in the world but its not much good if the iraqis ignored the warnings
The Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army were caught off guard by the advancing ISIL forces from Syria, which occupied Mosul and went on to take a third of Iraq. Are you saying that the Quds Force, IRGC, and the Iranian military and civilian intelligence operators, all active in Syria, had detected ISIL's movement, were aware of that, but did not warn Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army? If that was true, then the ISIL occupied Iraqi territory with the tacit approval of Iran. I don't think so. This was a massive intelligence failure on the part of the Iranians, especially the Quds Force.
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