Amid talks, Mideast nightmare looms
In pushing for a deal to stop Iran from getting nukes, Washington hopes to reform Iran so it will “take its rightful place in the community of nations.”
Instead, an emboldened Tehran is fomenting violence — and the Mideast is headed for a major explosion.
Here’s the state of the region, after 14 months of negotiations:
- In Yemen, all hell is breaking loose. Iran’s allies, the Houthis, have chased away the Western-backed elected government (as well as all Americans stationed in the country). The Saudis are now deep in the battle, at least from the air, and with supporting roles from their own allies.
Both Iran and the Saudis, meanwhile, now have warships off Yemen’s coast.
True, Yemen is a small, poor country. But 40 percent of the world’s oil ships through its Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow naval passage at the bottom of the Red Sea. If the Houthis control it, Tehran can command them to shut it down, triggering global catastrophe.
More alarming, this proxy fight, and a similar one in Bahrain, may soon spread to Saudi Arabia itself, bringing the principles — Riyadh and Tehran — in direct conflict.
The kicker: Iran’s instigation has galvanized Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda types. So the likely winner of this nightmare — whether Iranian-friendly Houthis or crazed, emboldened jihadis — aren’t likely to turn Yemen into a peace-loving democracy.
- In Syria, there’s no end in sight to the killing that’s already claimed a quarter million lives. Now, even Palestinians in camps there, particularly in Yarmouk, have been roped into the conflict. As the loyalties of the camp’s own militants split, civilians are killed by the hundreds by ISIS on one side and Assad on the other.
No one wants ISIS to prevail, of course, but if it fails, Iran will run Syria, with dire consequences for the region.
- In Iraq, anti-ISIS forces are playing whack-a-mole. They recently made great strides toward recapturing Tikrit, but have been losing ground in the Anbar region. Reports this week had the key city of Ramadi, 70 miles from Baghdad, on the brink of falling.
These relatively confined hot wars are just the start. Iranian arms are flowing to Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza and as far as North Africa. According to the Israelis, Iran this month boosted weapons deliveries to Hezbollah and Hamas, raising new fears of a coming war there.
And this comes after Hezbollah and high-ranking Iranian fighters were found casing the Golan Heights in January, apparently planning to set up a new beachhead on Israel’s Syrian frontier.
A strike by the Israel Defense Force back then killed several of the troublemakers, but the threats remain.
In Iran itself, one of our “allies” in the talks meant to curb the mullahs’ nuke lust, China, now plans to build five new reactors in Iran. That’s after Russia announced this week its intention to send the mullahs S-300 surface-to-air missiles, violating its previous vows not to do so.
And with that, one option for the West to stop Iran’s bomb-acquisition program — hitting its nuclear facilities militarily — will become more risky and costly.
Let’s face it: While we’re busy taking the pulse of level-headed negotiators in Switzerland, we forget that Iran’s a fanatical republic, intent on spreading its Shiite Islamic ideology far and wide. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif endlessly smiles at us in Lausanne, but in Iran, the man charged with exporting the revolution, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, has become a local hero.
Meanwhile, every small gain for Soleimani’s growing army of proxy militias strikes ever more fear among its Sunni enemies, many of whom feel it necessary to join with jihadi groups to roll back Tehran’s advances.
The see-no-evil deference paid by the Obama folks in the hope of reaching an agreement and maybe converting Iran’s mullahs into peace-lovers has only left the region more volatile.
Far from helping to pacify the region, the talks in Switzerland have only escalated wars there. Whether we reach a deal on Iran’s nukes or not, they have only helped Iran further its own goals — which fly in the face of our own.
Twitter: @bennyavni
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