It was not a long time to pass of the terrorist bombings that targeted several places in the French capital Paris taken place in November 13th of this month which cost the lives of more than a hundred dead and wounded , even the beneficiary of France terror thought to target it again but this time not within its territory, but outside it, to deepen the internal crisis to be reflected on foreign policy in the Middle East and especially towards the Syrian crisis.
On November 18th of this month, three people were arrested by employees in charge of the protection of the French Embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad when they tried to take photo to it and the passport and travel office next to it in the Al- Nidhal street in Baghdad . those persons has been delivered to the intelligence officer who is in charge of the protection of embassies and they are: Majid Asadi , Hajji Iranian citizenship and Ali Abdul Hussain Mattar and Ali Karim Ahmed, Iraqi nationality , and due to the seriousness of this matter and its negative effects on the French-Iraqi relations on one hand and the Iranian French relations on the other hand, the Iranian embassy in Baghdad interfered and imposed severe secrecy on this matter due to the very difficult security conditions in France and Iraq . But the question that arises in this context, why the terrorism is targeting French home and tried to attack its diplomatic headquarters abroad in this particular phase-experiencing diplomatic complexity with international allies of Bashar al-Assad , Russia , and regional “Iran” on the background of VIENNA meeting and what are the consequences made on This targeting?
Compared with all the European positions of the Syrian uprising, which has turned into a regional and international conflict, it can be said that the French position on the conflict in Syria since its inception five years ago and to this day, a situation where no confusion nor blurry in terms that France has supported and supports the political movement in Syria, insisted and insists on the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and its support to the Syrian uprising did not stop at this level, so from one hand it cooperated with the Arab and regional countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey in order to put more pressure on him for leaving the government, on the other hand it differed with US President Barack Obama’s administration in One of the vital humanitarian joints of the Syrian crisis, when intelligence reports confirmed that the Syrian regime , on August 21 / August 2013 AD, using chemical weapons against its own citizens in Ghouta region east of Damascus, while France wanted to launch military strike against him.
From this clear position of France toward the Syrian crisis , one can imagine without going deeper into the thinking of the security and political analysis to reach the first beneficiary of the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris a few days ago, and the possibility of occurrence of these terrorist attacks on its embassy in Baghdad. There is no doubt that the countries benefiting from the terrorism that occurred, and terrorism is on hold are Iran and its ally, the Syrian regime. Because nothing remained in front of Iran to keep the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria, just by extorting major countries through the gate of terrorism, and across the extremists belong to the Sunni Madhab to send several messages to the western world including that the Sunnis , who make up most of the people of the Islamic nation , are against modern civilian Europe and the evidence on that is the terrorist bombings. The second message and the most important for the Iranian regime is its overwhelming desire to change talks course of international meetings of Vienna which relates to settle the fate of Bashar al-Assad, and this priority to be changed and the focus of those talks to become on the face of terrorism which represent economic , political and security challenges on the regional and international communities, and the neglect of unequaled multifaceted crimes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in human history against his people , such as murder, which reached hundreds of thousands, and throw explosive barrels, and the use of chemical weapons, and the displacement of millions from their homes, and the migration of millions also outside their home country, and harassment of Iranian, Lebanese, Afghan and Iraqi militia in people , to say that these crimes have no value in front of the face of terrorism. To Turn the issue of the people , sought to freedom by all its potential and to get rid of an authoritarian system of government , to the issue of terrorism and has to pay the price!
The third message is that no less important than its predecessors embodied in Iran’s attempt to dismantle the regional and the international coalition against the Syrian regime, after the disappointment and the loss received by the Iranian policy of its historical and regional rival , Turkey; on one hand , the Iranian regime is betting that the terrorism practiced against Turkey by the organization of the State in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” in July of this year, will make it retreat on the Turkish interior, which will ease the pressure on Bashar al-Assad, but what happened was to the contrary. As Turkey continued its refusal to continue in power, on the other hand , a Turkish parliamentary elections that took place on the first of November / of the month results, formed a great shock to the Iranian regime, which had hoped to them at the very least to weaken the Justice and Development Party and its inability to exercise Regional influential roles negatively against its allies, but what happened was completely different since the AKP came back strongly to the political Turkish scene , after stumbling in the previous parliamentary elections which took place in the last June , and to control of the three state institutions, “the presidency, prime minister and the Grand National Council ” so this return and the power of the ruling Justice and Development means in the political calculations of the Iranian regime that Turkey will continue with regional and international allies in cracking down on Bashar al-Assad, until he is dropped .
In front of the Iranian failure to try to change policies of specific Regional countries “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey” towards Bashar al-Assad, Iran viewed to go to the capitals of major countries hoping to make the difference and that was through the French gate, the impact of the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris and the failure of their occurrence –till now – against its diplomatic mission in Baghdad, but as they occur , it will shed its shadow on French foreign policy toward the Middle East, especially the Syrian conflict, to force France to change its policy in the Middle East from insisting on the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the fight against terrorism and the reintegration of Syrian President in the international system . Taking advantage of the influence of far-right political forces and parties and public opinion to the French President Francois Hollande, who could retreat from his positions in favor of the rights of the Syrian people. This decline has seemed clear, as shown after the Vienna meeting, which was held in November 14 of this year, after several hours of Paris terrorist bombings, as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on his arrival in Vienna said “One of the main objectives of the meeting today in Vienna is precisely to see concretely how we can strengthen international coordination in the fight against Daash . ”
What the French did not say frankly is that «Daash» of the products of Assad and his regime. It is still penetrated by that system. Evidence of that is most of the «Daash» fighting in Syria since 2013, is against the opponents of Assad , and most of the regions where the organization exist in, was in the hands of the revolutionists , not in the hands of the regime, and that even in the recent period after the Russian intervention, the Syrian regime exchange areas with «Daash » Attack and retreat, including the areas seized by the« Daash »then withdrew in favor of the crumbling regime forces. And when «Daash» claimed responsibility for the bombing of the suburb of Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah said he will increase the operations against «Daash». Since 2013 , Hezbollah and other militias pro Iran are not fighting only against opponents of the Syrian regime of armed men, not including «Daash» in most fronts. the third reason or the fourth, which makes «Daash» invaluable ally for the Al-Assad and the Iranians and the Russians, that there is no major operation carried out by «Daash» (most recently Paris process) but only the Syrian regime and its Iranians allies are primarily benefiting from it . How could the issue of the Syrian people to forget or delay in «Vienna – 2» and in favor of the Assad regime ,unless the «Daash» attack at the Paris Conference? Thus, all eyes have turned to the fight against terrorism and not to liberate the Syrian people from the grip of the Al-Assad , so Lavrov and Kerry and Iran rushed to take the opportunity and focus on terrorism «Daash», forgetting the other terrorism, which all are involved in it years ago along with al-Assad and his regime!
Accordingly , Paris bombings have been reflected on the Vienna talks by offering a timetable for the formation of a transitional government in Syria within six months and to hold elections within 18 months, despite the fact that France was one of the more European countries of tough line towards the Assad regime, where it was seen by France as the basis of chaos in prior periods, and it was insisting on giving up power or to drop him , and is not a part of the future of Syria. It seems at the moment that the repercussions of the terrorist bombings reflected on foreign policy with respect to the Syrian conflict. This means that , in itself , is a temporary gain of the policy of the Iranian regime in Syria, because the major teams in it, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the two half of the participants and influential, are not agree with the decisions, not in terms of the fight against terrorism, but in terms of ignoring Bashar al-Assad. Therefore, discussions will not succeed. In this context, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that his country would fight against Al-Assad to remove him by force or by a political solution. ”
It seems that who plan of terrorist bombings , chose the timing of implementation very carefully, yes, these acts are terrorized French society in particular and other Western societies in general, but more importantly for the planners that its resonant to reach the agenda of the Vienna meeting and this is what the event so far.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies