Dr Faisal Al Qassem
If we agree that Iran has the right to implement its scheme in the Arab world via its internal Shia arms that are scattered here and there in our countries, would the majority accept this idea?
Of course no. It will be rejected categorically and every sensible person will be ready to confront it by all means as we see in Yemen now.
This is obvious that this process does not become a recipe for sectarian wars raging within the Arab countries that have been infiltrated by Iran and its Shia arms within the Arab world that have become just like a Trojan horse or fuel the destructive Iranian project in the region.
Don’t we understand that Iran uses its sectarian arms in our countries in order to destabilise them and break them apart through its internal agents?
What else does Iran want from its internal arms in our countries except division, dismantling and depletion? Doesn’t the Iranian scheme connect well in this case with the Western and Israeli projects that are based on more division and fragmentation, turning our countries into scenes of sectarian civil wars for many decades to come?
The Western and Israeli evil plans to dismantle the Arab region by engaging its people in ethnic, ideological and sectarian conflicts should not blind us from what Iran is doing in the region for years.
This is not less dangerous than the Western and Zionist projects. No wonder that some well-informed sources say about Iran’s two projects in the region, namely the “Zionist project,” and the “Safavid project”. These projects are in relation to the Safavids Iranian Empire of the sixteenth century that threatened both the Ottomans and the Mughals at the time.
We know the Franco-British agreement “Sykes-Picot” which divided the Arabs into twenty-two entities in the second decade of the last century. However, what is more serious now, as evident from the Iranian strategy, that Iran is working on dividing the divided and fragmenting the fragmented, just as the West and the Zionists are still doing.
What do we call the Iranian interference in Yemen by supporting a group against another calling for separation from the home country under the pretext that those belonging to that sect or group are persecuted and should get their rights?
Doesn’t everyone know the extent of the Iranian intervention in favour of the Houthi rebels in Yemen and trying to convert others to their sect by uprooting them from their countries and manipulating them to serve the Iranian cross-regional interests?
Doesn’t Iran encourage various separatists in Yemen depending on the orientation of the Yemeni leadership?
We have to talk about Bahrain where Iran has encouraged its sectarian followers to revolt under the pretext that the kingdom was historically part of Iran.
There is no need to talk about Iran’s provocative policies in the rest of the Gulf States on the basis of clear motives, to create divisions.
In Syria, the picture has become even clearer and gloomier in terms of the extent of Iranian meddling by involving different Syrian factions in sectarian wars and threatening the unity of the country.
Everybody is well aware that Iran’s support to the ruling regime in Syria has ideological and sectarian backgrounds, even if it led to the marginalisation of the vast majority of Syrians.
Some believe that Iran does not mind in dividing Syria and politically and ideologically support its allies to establish a mini-state guaranteeing it a pathway to Lebanon, where it backs another mini-state within a state, the Hezbollah.
There is no need to mention that even remote countries of northern Africa have not been safe from Iranian interference, trying to convert their people to the Shia sect as a way to break up the Arab countries. Let us remember here how Morocco has expelled the Iranian ambassador for this reason. Is Iran less dangerous than the West and Israel in breaking up the Arab region into mini-states?
(Dr Faisal Al Qassem is columnist and presenter at Al Jazeera TV channel)
