Interesting sub-plot developing in the Syrian crisis: Iran desperately wants in on diplomacy. The media is pretty much on top of Tehran’s multi-track approach of guns, butter and diplomacy, but there’s something we think deserves illumination.
Our point of departure: this tweet by Dina Esfandiary from the IISS. Referring to the staunch French opposition to inclusion of Iran in efforts to resolve the crisis, she sarcastically writes:
Fabius: “..we’re opposed (to incl #Iran in talks) bc it is not after a political solution”. But the #Russians are?
Moscow is protecting Assad, for sure, while Iran aspires to preserve the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah monster on the loose. The call for diplomacy seeks to prevent its years-long investment from going down the drain (Iran also probably fears public exposure of its strategic activities with Damascus). Tehran has tried this before, for instance during the 2006 Lebanon War when it sought to protect Hezbollah.
Back then, it was the French foreign minister who praised Iran’s “stabilizing role” in the Lebanon crisis – conveniently ignoring that Tehran had created and nurtured the monster it was proposing to constrain. Esfiandiary should actually be congratulating Paris for now adopting a policy much more consistent with the realities on the ground.
Indeed, France is right to link the Syrian and Iranian crises together, as Foreign Minister Fabius did in a recent interview to Le Monde when he asked:
“If the international community isn’t capable of stopping a movement in which Assad’s men are powerfully supported by the Iranians, how credible will we be in ensuring that Iran doesn’t acquire a nuclear weapon?”
The response of Trita Parsi, head of the DC-based pro-regime lobby? Forget about nukes, give Iran a seat at the table. No daylight there with Tehran.
Filed under: Iranian Nuclear Crisis, Other News Image may be NSFW.
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