Iran, Saudi Arabia fight proxy conflict in Syria

Deutsche Welle, 18 August 2012

While there is much talk of shared values and Islamic unity between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two countries are engaged in a bitter rivalry to expand their influence in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two rivals over the leadership role in the Islamic world, were eager to project harmony - at least when it came to outside appearances - at this week's summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Mecca, the holy city of Islam.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a seat right next to the host, King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia. In his speech, Ahmadinejad stressed that the shared belief in one religion, a shared prophet and one holy text outweighed the countries' differences with each other.

Diplomatic defeat for Tehran 

At the OIC summit, the leaders
 tried to stress their cooperation

But neither the seating arrangement nor the amicable speeches nor the heated debates behind closed doors could influence the outcome of the summit: the suspension of Syria from the organization - and the diplomatic defeat it represented for Iran, which is Damascus' closest ally in the region.

Ahead of the summit, Hermidas Bawand, professor for international relations at Tehran University, warned on a reformer website that "we will be made to look like a fool."

Ahmadinejad himself had in fact not expected to be able to prevent the anti-Syrian resolution.

"My voice was the only vote against it, and it had to be raised at the conference," he said after returning to Iran. His failure to push Tehran's point at the Mecca summit was also because the Saudis are well aware that he's a politician on his way out.

Ahmadinejad's term up next spring, and he has very little to say on crucial matters of the Islamic republic - like the country's nuclear ambitions or Tehran's ties with Damascus. Saudi Arabia knows that religious leader Ali Khamenei is setting the agenda in Iran. And that he's putting his country on a path of confrontation.

Islamic rivals 

Saudi Arabia doesn't see
Ahmadinejad as the one in charge

The old rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia as to who is leading the Islamic world is also fought on Syrian soil. The Saudi king described himself as "the servant of the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina" while Khamenei claims to be "the leader of the Islamic revolution."

The two countries also stand for the schism of the Islamic world: Saudi Arabia sees itself at the helm of the Sunnis, while Iran is leading the Shias. The conflict in Syria is increasingly fought along that sectarian divide with the Assad clan being Alawi, a denomination close to the Shias and therefore a natural ally to Tehran.

The unofficial proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia moved center stage early in August when 48 Iranians were kidnapped in Damascus. Quickly, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the men were religious pilgrims. Hours later, a pro-Saudi Sunni rebel group in Damascus claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. A video of the Iranians was then shown on the Saudi-financed television station Al-Arabiya. In the video, the rebel spokesman says the kidnapped were in fact not pilgrims but members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

US worries about role of Iran 

Iran wants to prevent the
 Assad regime from collapsing

The Revolutionary Guards do not dispute their activities in Syria. The country was, they said, a bastion of resistance against Israel, that's why Iran was supporting Syria, General Ismail Ghaani, vice president of the guards' Quds brigades, explained on an Iranian website. "If it wasn't for us, there'd be even more people dying." That quote though was later taken off the website.

Military and intelligence officials in the United States said they believe Iran is trying to train militias to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. At least some of the kidnapped pilgrims were members of the Republican Guards, an elite division specializing in exactly such tasks, says Washington. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the White House was very concerned about the development and that Iran should stay out of the conflict. At the same time, Panetta suggested that the US would step up its support for the Syrian opposition.

Related Articles:

Sunnis and Shiites remain historical rivals

German spyship aiding Syrian rebels: report

Unite Shiites and Sunnis in Indonesia

Rewriting History: Family of Secrets by Russ Baker

President George H.W. Bush and King Fahd share a laugh
during meetings in Saudi Arabia, Nov. 21, 1990. George
Bush Presidential Library and Museum

"Healing the Military Energies in our family Tree" – Jun 13, 2011 (Kryon channelled by David Brown)

“ … There’s much violence and anger throughout the world; when we look at the Middle East, we can see that changes are coming there. The West has a lot of power over the Middle East, but that power will begin to dissolve. The Muslim people of this world will begin to have their own power, and their own prosperity, and they will begin to disconnect from the Western World. This disconnection doesn’t have to be violent as violence only happens when somebody hangs onto what doesn’t belong to them....

... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)