Iran and the Truth

Walid Choucair, Al-Hayat:

There is a decisive factor in the Syrian counterattack on the international pressure exerted on Damascus in the framework of the international investigation into the assassination of martyr PM Rafik Hariri. The factor is the Iranian consolidated stance with the Syrian leadership, "government and people wise", as stated by the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki upon his visit to the Syrian capital earlier this week. READ MORE

Iran has decided to mobilize all its capabilities to prevent these pressures from destabilizing the Syrian regime. In addition to its conviction thereon, its stakes in it are high, especially in the light of its escalating crisis with the international community on the Iranian nuclear file. In the worst-case scenario, it does not intend to discard the "paper" of supporting the current Syrian regime in the event it senses, as is the case in other active Arab countries like Egypt and KSA, the threats of this possibility and the US indifference towards its repercussions on the rest of the surrounding countries.

Nevertheless, the Iranian concern over the destabilization of the Syrian regime is different from the Arab concern in different respects. Tehran wants first to maintain all its regional defensive lines and will fight any attempt to wipe out these lines. This is as long as the confrontation with the US and Europe is still a growing possibility, and as long as these lines impose on Washington and Europe certain calculations before escalating the pressure on it with respect to the nuclear file.

Secondly, Iran's defense of the Syrian stance is in harmony with the radical atmosphere that it has been witnessing since the election of the President Mahmoud Ahmedi Nejad.

Thirdly, its vision of the truth on Hariri's assassination is different from the rest of the Arab countries, which are concerned over the stability disruption in Syria. The reason is that it considers that, despite Syria's major mistakes in dealing with Lebanon, which led to the pullout of the Syrian forces in such a way, it is not permissible that the price of all these mistakes, which are deemed to be blatant by the Iranian leadership, would grow to be beneficial for the US and Israel to entrap Syria in the power claws of the two countries. In the midst of Iran's defense of the Syrian stance, there is a call for a settlement or deal regarding the truth, which secures fending off suspicions on any member of the narrow rule circle in Syria. Iran sets the high political, national, and Islamic interests above the rest.

This leads to a reading that involves multiple arguments to possibly explain the Iranian defense, such as the argument that says: why doesn't the investigation into the crime of making Imam Moussa Sadr disappear come to indict Libya? But the major argument is: why did one of the Arab leaders condone those accused of attempting to kill him, even though they are from another Arab country? This argument implies that the higher political reasons call for forgiveness, although the difference is that the Arab leader that issued the condonation was not killed while Hariri was killed… there is a number of Lebanese leaders who are virtually dead, and the people are awaiting the burial date!

The Iranian stance utterly espouses the Syrian stance with respect to the international investigation committee and to the request of its head, Judge Detlev Mehlis, to question six major Syrian officers. The stance's terminology almost literally corresponds with that of Hezbollah in putting forth skepticism on the politicization of the international investigation, to the point that it identifies with the party's viewpoint in its conflict with some internal parties, including PM Fouad Saniora.

The Syrian counter-attack is at the same time an Iranian attack, to the point that the prevailing conviction of some of those concerned is that the Iranian authority in Lebanon, which was during the previous years a paper in Syria's hand, has now become totally in control of Syria's situation. This is a principal reason that made Hezbollah change its inclinations in the relation with the two members of the "Quadripartite Alliance" or "the Future Bloc" and the Progressive Socialist Party (the fourth member is "Amal" movement) following months of agreement and harmony.

However, the question remains: if Tehran reaches a settlement with Washington with respect to the nuclear file, will it include its stance vis-à-vis Syria or will it proceed without it?