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Iran Review

At present, about 30 countries are directly or indirectly responsible for the prolongation of the ongoing crisis in Syria. This is the main reason why despite “outward” efforts by the United Nations, the crisis in the Arab country is expanding in dimensions with every day passing by.

Out of those 30 countries, there are a few countries which play a special role in this regard with the United States, as usual, being ahead of other warmongers by a great distance. During the past one year and nine months, Washington has spared no effort, from sending financial aid and weapons to providing insurgents with intelligence, to help make the Syrian opposition triumphant.

At first, the United States, through its Department of Treasury, allowed an organization called “Syrian Support Group” to raise fund from the American citizens in order to provide weapons to the Syrian opposition.

This proposition also allowed the group to provide its members with logistic, communication and financial support despite tough sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States. Of course, this is apart from 105 million dollars which has been provided to the Syrian opposition as humanitarian aid by the United States.

Contributions of the US statesmen to the Syrian opposition were not limited to funds and arms. The American and British intelligence services, using advanced spy satellites, provided the enemies of the US President Bashar Assad with critical intelligence on the Syrian government.

Interestingly, the United States has openly announced that it has plans to train Syrian militants. Announcing this in a press conference, spokeswoman of the US Department of State Victorian Nuland stated that the US Department of State had offered plans for the training of the Syrian militants, which aim to help with the overthrow of the incumbent Syrian government and the management of those regions which are occupied by the opposition forces.

In addition, the United States is actually controlling the operational room which it has set up in Turkey’s Azena region. In fact, three countries, that is, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have established a military base in Azena region, which is only 100 kilometers to the north of the common border with Syria in order to facilitate collection and dispatch of military and logistic aid to the armed opposition inside Syria.

According to available reports, Turkey and the United States run a joint military base in that region and it also seems that the famous Incirlik air base also supervises missions which aim to deliver arms and equipment to the Syrian opposition.

Britain: Sending More Arms to Syrian Insurgents

Britain is another Western country which has done its utmost to topple the Syrian government. Like other enemies of Assad, London at first worked covertly to give arms to the Syrian opposition, but is currently doing that quite openly. It was in line with this policy that the British Prime Minister David Cameron has come up with new plans one of which is to equip the Syrian opposition with more weapons.

It was also for this reason that he offered proposals for a basic change in the European Union’s policies toward Syria with the final goal of providing the Syrian opposition with necessary weapons. Of course, the apparent cover is recognizing the right of the coalition of the Syrian opposition groups to defend themselves. The British prime minister had earlier announced that London is helping Syria’s anti-government armed opposition by providing them with armored vehicles, telecommunication equipment and medical assistance.

In addition to 13 million pounds which has been granted to the Syrian insurgents by Britain in aid, the country has also provided the Syrian opposition with great amounts of intelligence assistance as well. This was first disclosed by the daily Sunday Times in an article which said the British intelligence service helps the Syrian opposition with the information about every move of the Syrian army troops.

According to this report, the British spies who are based in Cyprus collect the intelligence before passing it on to the American and Turkish sources. Finally, the Turkish sources relay that information to the Syrian insurgents.

Interestingly, Britain has never left the Syrian opposition alone and the forces of the former Special Air Service (SAS), have been used to train the leaders of the Syrian insurgents.

France to Give Heavy Artillery to Syrian Insurgents

France, which has currently turned into the most ardent supporter of the armed opposition in Syria, is now directly helping insurgent groups around the city of Aleppo.

During the past months, the French statesmen have provided armed groups in Syria with enormous financial aid in order to enable them to buy more weapons and support their military operations. Paris has also noted that it is considering supplying the Syrian insurgents with heavy artillery.

Interestingly, the Syrian opposition has such a high hope in receiving support from France that armed groups in the cities of Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo, and Idlib have requested anti-aircraft guns as a result of which Paris may change its views in this regard.

France, like the United States and Britain, has accepted to train the Syrian insurgents. The Turkish daily Milliyet had recently noted in a report that France has dispatched its military trainers to Turkey and Lebanon in order to train armed opposition groups fighting in Syria.

Israel Dreams of Disintegration of Syria

Israel, for its turn, has done its best to bring the Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government to its end. This is of such a vital importance to Israelis that Tel Aviv leaders sent Israel’s deputy minister for development to Bulgaria as the official representative of the Israeli regime in order to meet with the Syrian opposition.

Israelis have spared no military, arms, and political support for the Syrian insurgents and have even given them advanced technology to overcome the supporters of Assad. They even look beyond the overthrow of Assad and have aimed for the disintegration of Syria into smaller states.

This point was recently mentioned by the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post which wrote that by fanning the flames of sectarian strife which will ultimately lead to full-blown civil war, the Arab Republic of Syria can be broken down and Damascus, a staunch enemy of Israel, will be brought to its knee.

The leaders of the Israeli regime maintain that one of the scenarios which have been contemplated for the disintegration of Syria and turning the Arab country into a number of smaller secular and multiethnic societies is to create Sunni, Alawite Shia, Kurdish, and Druze states. This is why an Israeli army commander told the United Press International that Tel Aviv strongly believes that there is high possibility that Syria will be divided to give birth to smaller sectarian states in its place.

He alleged that if the current situation in Syria continued, the country would be divided into four distinct regions: a Kurdish region in the north; a second region dominated by Alawite Shias along the Mediterranean coasts of the two cities of Tartus and Lattakia, as well as two Sunni- and Druze-dominated regions in Jabal al-Druze region.

Qatar Asks the United Nations to Help the Syrian Insurgents

Of course, international political players have not been alone in their effort to topple Bashar Assad and have been assisted by their regional allies as well. Qatar is one of those allies and has emerged as the most important source of money and weapons for the Syrian insurgents.

The interesting point is that the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has clearly announced that his country will use all possible means to help armed insurgents in Syria. The country has even asked the United Nations to lend its support to provision of financial and arms support to the Syrian opposition.

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