Foreign News
From Iran Ceasefire To Syrian Tinderbox, Al-Qaeda To Hezbollah
Is the US-Iran ceasefire sustainable? Or is it the prelude to another war? What explains French President Macron’s presence in Damascus recently? Would Israel be okay with an Al Qaeda role in Lebanon?
So many questions reflecting the churn in West Asia since hostilities exploded early this year with the US eliminating Iran’s Supreme Leader and other key senior figures in a missile strike.
But let’s begin with Macron in Damascus confabulating with Ahmed al-Sharaa, president of Syria since January last year. The French leader may well have sensed an opportunity to try and restore his country’s influence over the new leadership given that Syria was a French colony.
But Dr Stanly John, foreign editor of The Hindu who did his Ph.D thesis on Hezbollah, believes that Macron had far bigger things in mind. For instance, getting al-Sharaa to send forces into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah.
“They now see, a historic opportunity to rebuild France’s West Asia, policy. And also, if you build a foothold in Syria you can expand that into Lebanon, which was also your colony, and you have very close ties with the Christians in Lebanon.
“Then President Trump said recently he was not happy with the way the Israelis were fighting Hezbollah and they can ask Mr Sharaa to take on Hezbollah,” he told The Gist on StratNewsGlobal.
The West has appears to have thrown its weight behind al-Sharaa. Not only has he met the UK Prime Minister Starmer, he’s been serenaded at the White House and elsewhere.
Hezbollah is at a weak point now since the link with Iran is now broken and they no longer have access to weapons, missiles and of course money. If that does happen, it means the Sunni Al-Qaeda and possibly elements of the Islamic State could join forces in another bitter sectarian war against the Shia.
Israel may have no issues here since the enemy right now is Hezbollah along with remnants of other Iranian-backed groups. But it’s important to note that al-Qaeda too has no love lost for Israel, Dr John said.
To add to this mess, al-Sharaa is under pressure from Turkey to get the Kurds out of northeastern parts of Syria which they control. The problem for the Syrian leader is that he presides over a tinderbox of a country.
The former ruing elite comprising the Alawite population does not like al-Sharaa and there were mass killings targeting them last year.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Dr Stanly Johny, foreign editor of The Hindu.
