Syria, an opportunity or an obstacle?

Syria can be a bridging opportunity for the east and west to lower the conflicts, and it also can be a battlefield to ratchet up the tensions between the two. It depends on what the leaders in each side are looking for and what other influential local powers are pursuing to achieve from this conflict. But one question is appear to not to be as important as others, but perhaps in a few years, we may look back and see whether we needed to ask this question at this time and if yes, how we should have addressed this question: Is this an opportunity for countries like Iran or is this an obstacle for the newly elected President, who is believed to be more willing to take down the walls Iran has built around itself  over the past 30 years.

Answering this question requires taking geopolitical and power struggle in the world into consideration. From the past events, it appears that Syria has turn into a battlefield between United States and Russia, each one trying to persuade the world that they have more power over the other. As an example, the United States’ decision for military strike was a hint to the spectators that they still rule and they are still at the front row of democracy in the world, as President Obama mentioned as a justification for any possible strike. On the other side of the story, Russians are seeing the conflict from an entirely different perspective. They still insist that the chemical weapons were used by Assad’s opponents and by offering a sacrificial proposal, they are trying to imply that the US policy is not the best in this battlefield. Nevertheless, there is another player in this game that needs to be taken into consideration, and that is Iran.

Iran is known to be Assad’s main ally in the region and it is believed to support the regime financially and also in artillery supply.  However,  there has been and it is suspected that there will be significant changes in Iran’s foreign policy in the coming years and this is an opportunity to seize, especially for the countries who do not underestimate the potential exists in befriending Iran. Its government has been pro-Russian after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and there is a strong tie between the two. This is mainly due to the western sanctions over Iran in the past 35 years, that makes Russia one of its main markets. This can be reflected in the military ties these two have, not to mention the entire nuclear fairy-tale that has been going on for the past 30 years, on and off.

The driving force behind recent modifications in the political perceptions by its governments goes back to the social and economical challenges people encounter and they demand a change, that can be discussed in another time.

Iran can use this opportunity to reveal to the world its own victimized people from Saddam Hosein’s chemical gassing of Iran. This is usually overlooked and the world has forgotten this humanitarian disaster. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people were killed in this gassing and over 100,000 people were severely poisoned and even today after 30 year, they are suffering from lung, eye and skin conditions. Hadi Kajemnejad, a 46 years old victim of Iraqi’s chemical attack to Iran says: “”After a couple of hours, we developed huge blisters on our bodies and I gradually became unconscious,” said the 46-year-old. “I had experience of being under heavy bombardment and artillery fire but seeing how gas can kill and suffocate strong soldiers was a frightening experience. I never forget the horrors of seeing huge, painful blisters on our bodies.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/16/us-iran-chemical-weapons-insight-idUSBRE98F08020130916).

The Start

First words are always hardes to write. but there should be a start at one point. My start was jammed with the distraction from my tablet. It seems that I will have to downgrade into old style “keyboard”.

We, humans of course, have an enormous desire for complaining. We tent to ignore the other side of the story, that is “knowinng the path is different that going the path”. Most of the conversations I have during a typical day goes by hearing or sometimes overhearing the complains from people. But there is a little more in that. Complaining can be a major source of disappointment.