How They Are Cutting Syria

and Iraq into Pieces

Iakovos Alhadeff

At the following map you can see the progress of the Islamic State Army (Islamic State

of Iraq and Syria or Islamic State of Iraq and Levant). You can see that ISIS controls the

eastern part of Syria and the northwestern part of Iraq.

Source: Opinionpost

This could be a situation that pleases all parties to some extent and a truce could be

reached. At the situation described by the above map, Assad who is a Russian and Iranian

ally, keeps the region next to the Israeli borders and next to the Mediterranean Sea. That

means that the Russians keep the naval base they have at the Syrian port of Tartus.

Moreover Assad still controls the rich off shore natural gas resources of Syria, which is

already agreed to be exploited by the Russians. Keep in mind that Assad is full aware that

worst things might happen to him i.e. what happened to Gaddafi in Libya.

The Saudis and the Qataris are happy because if ISIS controls the eastern part of Syria

and the western part of Iraq, the Iranians will not be able to send Iranian oil and natural

gas at the Mediterranean Sea, through the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, thus hurting Saudi oil

and Qatari natural gas, as I was explaining in my essay “The Energy War Between

U.S.A. and Russia”. Please note that the Saudis are rich in oil, the Qataris are rich in

natural gas, and the Iranians are rich in both.

Turkey is happy too, because the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline will not end in Syria i.e. next to

Turkey’s Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. The Iranian pipeline would reduce both Turkish

revenues and Turkish geopolitical significance.

The Iranians are a bit happy, since their ally Assad, keeps the region next to Israel. Assad

is the main connection of the Iranians at the Israeli border. Moreover the Iranians use

Assad to arm the terrorists of Hezbollah in Lebanon, in order to attack Israel. Both Assad

and Hezbollah are very important to the Iranians, in case Israel tries to attack its nuclear

facilities. Therefore al these connections remain at the Iranians’ disposal.

Iranians face the main problem, since it would be their own oil and natural gas that would

end in the Mediterranean Sea through the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline. However that’s what

happens when a country is an enemy of the U.S.A., while its enemies i.e. the Saudis, the

Qatarsis and the Turks are very good friends with the U.S.A. The Qataris have allowed

the Americans to build big army and airport bases in Qatar, and the U.S.A. is still the

strongest military power in the world. And when weapons talk bullshit walks.