The Axis of Resistance

"What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other.  Iran will never allow the resistance axis - of which Syria is an essential pillar - to break."  Saeed Jalili

"Resistance" of course is Islamspeak for waging war on those considered the enemies of radical Islamism by whatever means possible, usually bu utilizing belligerent threats by mouth-foaming delegates at the United Nations, condemning the West in general and the U.S. and Israel in particular.  And convening 'international' conferences to which like-minded fanatics are invited to contest the realities of history.

Iran's friendship with Syria is not reciprocated by other than the minority Alawite community which shares Shia sensibilities with the Iranian ayatollahs.  The Sunni majority is not well disposed generally toward the aspirations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, other than the common Arab-Muslim antipathy toward Israel.  And so, it wasn't too difficult a decision for a group of Free Syrian Army militants to abduct 48 Iranian men off a tour bus.

It's difficult to conceive that tourists would blithely enter a country in the grips of a vicious civil war to visit a shrine.  Usually, young muscular men are more interested in entering a country in the grip of action to share some of the excitement by attaching themselves to one side or the other for the sheer exhilaration and pleasure of being engaged in the general melee.

In this instance, of course, such a group of testosterone-loaded young men would likely represent members of the al-Quds unit of the Iranian Republican Guard, out of uniform to allay suspicions about their presence in a war zone, until they are able to reach their appointed destination and assume their proper identities and take part in the carnage.

The "axis of resistance", Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are all integrally involved in a desperate attempt to rescue and restore the legitimate and noble leadership of Syria.  For his part, President al-Assad reassured his guest, Iranian leadership spokesman Saeed Jalili that "The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite."

Wholly reassuring.  As for the defection of Riad Hijab - the Sunni latterly-appointed prime minister, who was perfectly at home about the regime's brutality expressed through the military's instructions to eradicate the traitors purporting to be loyal Syrians, along with their Islamist and terrorist brothers-in-arms - he only stirred himself to depart the "murderous" regime once he felt assured it was on its way out.

So, no big loss, since he was never part of the regime's inner trusted circle in any event, merely window dressing to demonstrate that in the autocratic rule of the al-Assad dynasty there was room and equality for all sects.  Some truth to that, in fact, since the Kurds and the Christians were never as oppressed as they most certainly will be once the opposition has taken power.

The fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army are exhausted, their stores of ammunition running perilously low, but they do have possession and control of a good portion of the country, with allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar offering plenty of encouragement, cash and weapons.  Aleppo and Damascus will eventually fall to the FSA.

Those thousands of regime troops, those hundreds of tanks, are at a distinct disadvantage fighting within the narrow confines of a crowded cityscape which they are, in any event, battering at a distance.  The military assault on the cities of Syria represent desperation, certainly not assurances.  And Iran is casting its conspirators' eye about for a solution to replace its weapons-to-Hezbollah conduit shortly.

Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi is conferring with his Turkish counterpart.  Turkey, it should be recalled, thinks rather highly of Iran.  Life can be such a challenge.  Turkey has undergone quite the transformation; formerly a trusted ally of Israel of long standing, but with the secular Turkish government suddenly become Islamist, the association with Israel galled, and Turkey became enamoured of Iran and Syria and lauded Hamas and Hezbollah.

The medieval, convoluted, headache-inducing, shifting politics of the Middle East then saw Turkey's alliance with Saudi Arabia aligned against Syria because Turkey bridled indignantly at the image of a Muslim country attacking its own, upbraided Syria and declared Turkish solidarity with the opposition.  Now faced with the choice of staying the course with Saudi Arabia and Qatar or returning to the Iranian fold.