Syria-Dangers of the Divide and Rule Policy

 By Sajjad Shaukat for VT

Like the United States, Ottoman Empire of Turkey was a large multi-ethnic state. European powers, especially the Great Britain played a key role in disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. In order to maintain their control, one of the British strategies was divide and rule which was being practiced through various tactics such as arrangement of rebellions, manipulation of ethnic and sectarian differences and so on. The Britain provided soldiers, weapons and money to the Arab subjects against that Empire. According to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the British and French agreed to divide the Arab world between themselves. The Britain took control of what are now Iraq, Kuwait, and Jordan. The French were given modern Syria, Lebanon and southern Turkey. Thus, they brought about the end of the Ottomans and the rise of the new states like Jordon, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Kuwait etc. with borders running across the Middle East, diving Muslims from each other.

The British Mandate of Palestine was given by the League of Nations to the United Kingdom to administer the territory. During the World War I, the Zionists pressurized the British government to settle them in Palestine after the war. Within the British government, there were many who were sympathetic to this political movement. As regards the Balfour Declaration, it was a letter dated November 2, 1917 from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community for onward transmission to the Zionist Federation—the leader of Zionism in the United States during that period, Louis Brandeis who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson, was a man with deep conspiratorial connections.

On 14th May 1948, the UNO implemented the 1947 UN Partition Plan and established the state of Israel. With backing of the US and West, Israel continued usurping the Palestinian land.

It is notable that despite Pakistan’s membership of the US sponsored military alliances SEATO and CENTO including Pak-US bilateral military agreement, America did not come to help Pakistan against India which separated the East Pakistan in 1971.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. (R) who served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, within the US Defence Department, with numerous essays on strategy for military journals is the architect of infamous 2006—New Middle East map and is an advocator for the disintegration of Muslim states on sectarian and religious lines. His map shows a number of Islamic countries including Pakistan as truncated. While writing in the June 2006 issue of The Armed Forces Journal of the US, he had suggested Washington about the creation of a “Greater Balochistan” which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran—and the Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa) should be incorporated into Afghanistan—fragmentation of Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The term New Middle East which was first coined by the then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in June 2006 in Tel Aviv coincided with the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Terminal in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Israeli ex-Prime Minister Olmert favored the New Middle East project in wake of the Anglo-American backed Israeli siege of Lebanon.

Orchestrated drama of the 9/11, fake global war on terror in advancing the agenda of the Zionists, Israeli lobbies and the neoconservatives, occupation of Afghanistan by the US-led NATO, Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, like the creation of Al-Qaeda by the CIA, the Islamic State group (ISIS) as part of the anti-Muslim campaign, US president Obama’s silence over the supply (Smuggling) of oil by ISIS to the European countries, toppling the elected government in Egypt, creation of more collapsed states such as Libya, Syria, Yemen etc., CIA support to the rebels, mercenaries and ISIS terrorists to topple the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other related-developments are part of further balkanization of the Middle East in accordance with the divide and rule policy to promote the interests of the Zionists and a greater Israel.

Henry Kissinger had suggested the split of Iraq into three independent regions, ruled by Kurds, Shias and Sunnis. In this regard, the Asia Times Online reported in 2005, “The plan of balkanizing Iraq into several smaller states is an exact replica of an extreme right-wing Israeli plan…an essential part of the balkanization of the whole Middle East. Curiously, Henry Kissinger was selling the same idea even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq…this is classic divide and rule: the objective is the perpetuation of Arab disunity.”

Here, it is of particular attention that the US had planned to spark a civil war between the Sunnis and Shias. For the purpose, a study of Rand Corporation, titled ‘US Strategy in the Muslim World After 9/11’ was conducted on behalf of the then US Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force. Its report which was released on December 27, 2004 advocated that Sunni-Shia sectarian division should be exploited to promote the US objectives in the Muslim World. The report was first implemented in Iraq. CIA also got the services of Israeli secret agency Mossad to fuel sectarian violence in Iraq. In 2004, major terror-attacks were carried out against the Shias. Afterwards, a chain of Shia-Sunni clashes started between Iraqi Shias and Sunnis, targeting each other’s mosques, religious leaders through bomb blasts, suicide attacks etc. After Iraq’s experiment, more deadly pattern of sectarian strife and clashes have been conducted in Pakistan. However, under Obama, America is still manipulating sectarian differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran—also noted in case of Syria and Yemen.

Americans were badly frustrated by the recent developments such as Russian airstrikes on the ISIS strongholds in the northern Syria, its coalition with Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon-based Hezbollah in support of President Assad, Putin’s statement, indicating the Zionist regime in the US and Israel for their phony war on ISIS remarking, “NWO (New Word Order) agents and Satan worshipers simply have no clothes,” including the Vienna meeting where the US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to keep the Syrian president in power, not to allow ISIS militants group to reign in Syria, US decision of  sending 50 special forces to Syria to help in taking down ISIS terrorists had clearly exposed the covert aims of the US fake global war on terror.

Frustrated by the disclosure of their double game, the neo-conservatives, Zionists and Israel needed the assistance of the whole Europe and other western countries to achieve multiple-objectives including geopolitical interests (Securing the smuggling of oil by ISIS and Turkey) of Tel Aviv and Obama Administration against the Islamic World and Russia.

For the purpose, conspiracy was definitely prepared and the leading role was played by Mossad. In this respect, arrest of Israeli Col. Shahak in Iraq, his admission, proving links of Al-Qaeda and ISIS with America and Israel (Mossad) and medical treatment of the ISIS warriors in the Israeli hospitals might be cited as instance. ISIS which was already being assisted by the CIA and Mossad was directed to send its militants in Paris, where they conducted the November 13 terror attacks.

Learning no positive lesson from the drastic aftermath—anti-Muslim phenomena of the 9/11 tragedy, US-led western rulers and politicians have been creating similar chauvinism by instigating ‘emotionalism’ among the peoples of their countries in the post-Paris attacks. Europe has been put on high alert and Paris assaults are being taken as assaults on the whole continent.

In this context, the US has succeeded in getting the support of its western allies against Russia. It has also deviated from its previous stand that Asad will remain in power and future of Syria will be decided by its people. Some unexpected developments like dispatch of American Special Forces in Syria, participation of the UK, movements of France’s troops and naval units near the Syrian border, similar move by German troops in the Syria-Iraq battlefield, Turkey’s deployment of larger military units close to the Syrian border, acceleration of their airstrikes on ISIS (Including the Syrian forces) etc. show that instead of a broader coalition (Including Russia), the west has chosen the US-led anti-ISIS alliance either to oust Assad or to kill him like the Libyan President Col. Gaddaf, after throwing the country into endless anarchy. Syria may be divided into two parts, one controlled by the Russian coalition and the other by the US-led NATO. Another scenario is that proxy war may prolong in Syria. But US-led alliance will try to occupy the Syrian oil installations.

On the other side, Russia which has intensified its airstrikes on the ISIS strongholds has increased its military build up in Syria also by deploying its S-400 missile systems to the Hmeymim airbase. Besides, some alarming moves like tension between Moscow and Ankara over latter’s downing of a Russian jet Su-24 bomber on the Syrian-Turkish border for an alleged airspace violation, Turkey’s deployment of military troops, armored vehicles inside Iraq near the city of ISIS controlled Mosul to allow the smuggling of oil, in the pretext of fighting ISIS warriors and Iraq’s warning to Ankara to vacate its territories have further deteriorated the situation. Now, it seems that this precarious situation of Syria can lead to world war 111 or may culminate into nuclear war.

Meanwhile, to confirm the continued assistance of the west and NATO allies against Russia and the Muslim World, ISIS was again used by the Mossad and the America’s Zionist Jews in connection with the shooting by a Muslim couple, namely Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, at an office party in San Bernardino, California on December 2, which left 14 people dead and wounded 21, is now being investigated as an act of terrorism. Setting aside the facts that both are non-state actors and had no official backing of any Muslim state, the FBI is linking the couple with the Syria-based ISIS and Pakistan, as being the only nuclear country in the Islamic World, the latter is also another target of the Israel-led US.

Now, most dangerous development is that like the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, American and western politicians are creating stereotypes and prejudices against the Muslims by projecting the so-called threat of Islamophobia with the sole aim of getting the sympathies of their peoples to increase their vote bank. They and their media have been introducing dangerous socio-religious dimension in their societies by equating the “war on terror” with “war on Islam” and acts of Al Qaeda and ISIS with all the Muslims—dividing world politics on cultural and religious lines with the negative projection of Islam. For the aims, phobia of ISIS has been intensified to disintegrate Syria as part of old policy of divide and rule.

Meanwhile, addressing at a rally in South Carolina, US Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on December 7 called for a ban on Muslims, entering the United States in response to the San Bernardino shooting. He stated, “We have no choice…more Sept. 11-style attacks if stern measures are not taken.” In other words, more terror attacks by the Zionists and Mossad could be managed either in America or in Europe to fragmentize the Islamic World to obtain the interests of Israel.

Reports indicate that like the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster, in the post-terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, the Muslims are being persecuted in the US and other western countries, particularly in Europe. All laws in west regarding immigration, personal search, detention and arrest of the suspected persons are being applied to the Muslims. Besides, Muslims in the west are facing severe backlash in form of attacks on the Mosques and threats.

Notably, the pro-American rulers of Arab countries including other Islamic countries are trying to protect their kingdoms, Sheikhdoms and governments by giving priorities to the Israeli global dominance at the cost of their own peoples. In wake of the present anti-Muslim phenomena in the west, more resentment is found against the US-led west, and even the moderate Muslims are likely to join the militants. This could result into revolts against these Muslim rulers or civil wars—another danger of the divide and rule policy.

If Syrian question remains unresolved, it will create chaos in the Middle East, enveloping the entire world. Divide and rule policy will culminate into “Clash of Civilizations,” as predicated by Huntington. Any major war or such a clash will take the US and Europe to the era—from 1511 to 1648 when Europe witnessed a prolonged arena of barbarism, religious bigotry and intolerance, resulting into beastly violence, and the Treaty of Westphalia was concluded in 1648 in order to maintain the nation-state system whose basic purpose was to honor the dignity of human beings.  

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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