{"id":1766,"date":"2020-01-09T14:20:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T12:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=1766"},"modified":"2020-01-09T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T12:20:44","slug":"usa-vs-iran-the-shadow-of-terror-covers-the-middle-east-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=1766","title":{"rendered":"USA vs Iran: The Shadow of Terror covers the Middle East Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At the dawn of 2020, the US and\nIran for the first time were involved in real fire using the national territory\nof Iraq as a battlefield and geo-strategic chessboard, leaving behind the\nsecret war that was held between them so far in the entire Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The extermination in Baghdad by\nthe United States of Iran&#8217;s most charismatic and powerful military leader,\nMajor General Qassem Suleimani, sparked the\nwick of the Middle East&#8217;s flammable powder keg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by<strong> Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:12px\"><em>\u00a9The law of intellectual property is prohibited in any way unlawful use\/appropriation of this article, with heavy civil and criminal penalties for the infringer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/800px-Iran_United_States_Locator_2.svg_.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1768\"\/><figcaption><strong>World Map indicating locations of Iran and United States<\/strong><br>Photo by Bazonka, Source: File: BlankMap-World6, compact.svg<br>licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_domain\">Public Domain<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who was the mighty Iranian major General and what is the <\/strong>\u201c<strong>Al-Quds\u201d<\/strong> <strong>which he was commanded<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Iranian major General Qassem Suleimani was the commander of \u00abQuds Force\u00bb from 1998 until his death and was the hero of the whole Shiite world and of course Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;Quds Force\u00bb would take operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) abroad, while the American magazine &#8220;New Yorker&#8221; in 2014 compared the unit Al-Quds, in terms of its operation and action, with the U.S.&nbsp; secret service and Israel namely the CIA and Mossad respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the elite Corps of Iranian\narmed forces. Founded&nbsp;&nbsp; in 1979 by Sayyid\nRuhollah Moussavi Khomeini also known in Western World as Ayatollah Khomeini.&nbsp; Its structure (IRGC) comprises five branches:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Army forces<\/li><li>Navy forces<\/li><li>Aviation forces<\/li><li>Bashiz Militia<\/li><li>Al-Quds Forces <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Amnesty International, the Iranian pro-governmental Civil\nGuard Bashiz is a volunteer paramilitary force (operating as Soviet party\nmembers in the USSR operated to control the interior of the USSR by dissidents\nto the Soviet regime) and used to contribute to the observance of law and order\nin order to suppress any disagreements and riots in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, the force &#8220;Al-Quds&#8221; is intended to conduct\nconventional war operations abroad and collect information. It supports with\nweaponry and education\/training paramilitary organizations in many countries,\nsuch as Hezbollah (Lebanon), Hamas (Gaza Strip and West Bank), Houthi (Yemen),\nShiite militia (Iraq) and Taliban (Afghanistan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US considers the Force Al-Quds, with the previously head of Major General Qassem Suleimani responsible for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong> The bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut (Lebanon) by a suicide bomber left behind 63 dead of which 17 were American citizens (April 18, 1983).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2.<\/strong> Bombing with explosive trapped trucks in the US and French camps in Beirut (Lebanon) that constituted the Multinational Force in Lebanon leaving behind the dead 58 French paratroopers of the Battalion RCP and 241 US Marines and 21 American citizens (October 23, 1983).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong> Explosion of a car trapped in the American Embassy in Eastern Beirut (Lebanon) leaving behind 16 dead (September 20, 1984).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong> For the attacks in recent attacks in Saudi Arabia (2019) and the substitution of U.S. power in the Middle East by Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\u0391\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b9\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c3\u03ad\u03bc \u03c3\u03bf\u03bb\u03b5\u03ca\u03bc\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\" class=\"wp-image-1771\" width=\"556\" height=\"244\"\/><figcaption><strong>The Iranian major General Qassem Suleimani and Commander of Al-Quds Force<\/strong><br>photo by site pronews.gr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why did this Iranian major<\/strong> <strong>general be eliminated\nfrom the United States<\/strong>?<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani, in addition to all others, would be\na candidate for the Presidential elections to be held in Iran in 2021. His\nconfident prevalence would have suppressed any moderate voices in Iran with the\nfull prevalence of hardline voices and creating an increasingly aggressive\nstrategy against the US and their allies in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Major General Qassem Suleimani controlled Iranian influence throughout the\nMiddle East, roll governments in Iraq, supported the Assad government in Syria,\nhandled Iran&#8217;s relations and support for Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi and Taliban.\nIt was he who created the new &#8220;Iranian Empire&#8221; in the Middle East as\na new Persian King Xerxes of the ancient Persian Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. Congress based on the information leaked in the press had not been\ninformed of this move. But surely its extermination is a very resonant energy\nwith deterrent content against those who attempt to challenge the American\nsupremacy and power in the Middle East in recent periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, fear and terror is being achieved for what is ahead to\nanyone questioning the power of the US and the countries belonging to the US\nand Western camps in general and trying to pursue their own independent policy (e.g.\nTurkey).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The <\/strong><strong>failure of US policy in Iraq<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seventeen consecutive years since the last US invasion of Iraq and after\nthe fall of Saddam Hussein, the US has failed to turn Iraq into a model Middle\nEast Republic that harmoniously integrates the Western constitutional\ngovernance as governance model with Arab culture and Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iraq remains immersed in chaos. In 2019 more than 500 people died and more\nthan 21000 were injured, claiming better living conditions against the\ncorruption of all kinds of elites (economic, political, state, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018 the then Iraqi government tried failing to push for a resolution to\nthe Iraqi Parliament a bill aimed at withdrawing US soldiers from the territory\nof Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps this realization of the US military operation against a foreign\nofficial (Qassem Suleimani) in Baghdad violating in this way the Iraqi national\ndomination, the voices last week multiplied and brought the concrete bill to a\nvote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iraq in Iran&#8217;s sphere of influence<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to impose harsh sanctions on Iran,\nmost likely forced Iran to strengthen its variously ties with Iraq, Turkey and\nRussia. Iran is increasingly involved in Iraq&#8217;s political, economic and\ncommercial life and while controlling Iraq&#8217;s security areas. At the same time,\nthe largest consumption of the Iraqi population in gas and electricity is being fueled by Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to unilaterally withdraw the USA\n(2018) from the international agreement on Iran&#8217;s nuclear programmed Joint\nComprehensive Plan of Action-(JCPOA), provoked and highlighted hardliners in\nthe political, economic and military scene of both Iran and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the protests of Iranian citizens against the economic policies of the Iranian government we have today reached the point that the Iranians and Iraqis are burning American flags in front of the US Embassy in Baghdad (Iraq, December 21, 2019) screaming &#8220;Death to America.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image.jpeg\" alt=\"\u0391\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b5\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b9\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\" class=\"wp-image-1770\" width=\"568\" height=\"320\"\/><figcaption><strong>The Iranian Flag of War was raised after the death of their Beloved Major General<\/strong><br>photo by site www.gazzeta.gr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The short and long-term consequences of the extermination of Qassem\nSuleimani<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The short-term consequences are the rise in oil prices due to Iran&#8217;s potential retaliation to the US allies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel) and the indirect military blockade of the Persian Gulf from its straits in Oman that will drastically increase the risk of crossing tankers. But the price of oil very quickly will correct in its normal levels (for more information on this subject please read the analysis titled &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=1755\">How will move the Oil Prices for the New Year<\/a>&#8220;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The American soldiers in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey will\nbe in direct sight of retaliation by the Iranian force &#8220;Al-Quds&#8221;\nacting abroad and by the supporters of the paramilitary mechanisms and\norganisations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Shiite militias of Iraq, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The long-term consequences generally include all American interests and US\ncitizens in Europe who will also be under the radar of Iran and lone wolves\nmoving against the United States interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Major security issues are raised in Europe and in the Western countries in\ngeneral, which will require greater enforcement of restrictive measures on the\nfreedom and personal data of citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the extermination of Iranian major General Qassem Suleimani, Iran was\nvery much struck by the great influence it had on the whole of the Middle East.\nHis successor does not have the charisma of his predecessor, so it is late to\nrestore things as they were. Iran has tried to mitigate the damage by\nimmediately replacing the deceased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gap that is currently being created in the Middle East and until Iran comes\nback favours Turkey, which is anxious to become the protector of the everywhere\nMuslims of the Middle East and not just them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turkey will endeavor to associate in a variety of ways (financial,\npolitical, military, etc.) into its sphere of influence all these paramilitary\nand Iranian networks operating in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza Strip and Western Bank\nin order to exert even more pressure (along with Russia) on USA and Israeli\ninterests in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iraq is a very difficult case for Turkey because it is the Iraqi Kurdish\npopulations and Iran has a great deal of influence in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US and their allies will have to prevent in any way the support and\nstronger influence of Turkey in the Middle East, which will now try to\nsubstitute Iran by following similar methods with the Force &#8216;Al-Quds&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless President Trump has promised Turkey&#8217;s President in return for\nTurkey&#8217;s unlimited intervention in the Middle East in order Turkey to remain in\nthe West camp, thereby stopping Turkey from eyeing Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Potential targets-Iran<\/strong> <strong>retaliation<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran&#8217;s retaliation for the extermination of Major General Qassem Suleimani will focus on a similar resounding and yet highly communicative blow to the US and their allies in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of these retaliatory and if achieved will be to prove to Iran that it can and does directly hit the most valuable &#8220;strategic players&#8221; on the geopolitical chessboard and as was the case for Iran by major general Qassem Suleimani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case Iran will try to hit the heads of the US secret services and\ntheir respective allied countries in the Middle East and generally all those\nwho have a corresponding size for their countries like the one they had for\nIran this particular Iranian major general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US had taken care to remind the Middle East of their ability to perform\nsurgical strikes when wiped out by bombing in Syria in October 2019, the leader\nof the Islamic State of Abu Bark al-Baghdadi. This was purely a symbolic action from the US and since Abu Bark al-Baghdadi\u2019s organization, Islamic State, had been &#8220;dissolved&#8221; long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They simply did the same thing with the Iranian major General Qassem Suleimani. But this time this &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action was not symbolic but caused a tectonic earthquake in the geopolitical chessboard of the Middle East, effectively weakening Iran and its influence, and its objectives were to substitute US power in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, US President Donald Trump through the last hit will additionally be able to rally his electoral base even further ahead of the US Presidential elections in November 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the dawn of 2020, the US and Iran for the first time were involved in real fire using the national territory of Iraq&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,834],"tags":[1367,1368,1370,1372,1110,1108,160,1173,1369,153,755,1040,1371,753,1366,1373,1211,143],"class_list":["post-1766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical","category-middle-east-geopolitical","tag-abu-bark-al-baghdadi","tag-al-quds","tag-cia","tag-hamas","tag-hezbollah","tag-houthi","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-irgc","tag-israel","tag-jcpoa","tag-middle-east","tag-mossad","tag-persian-gulf","tag-qassem-suleimani","tag-shiite-militia","tag-taliban","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}