How Paris Attacks Have Strengthened Iran’s Position Over Syria

The attacks in Paris may have postponed Hassan Rouhani’s highly-anticipated visit to the Élysée Palace, which was scheduled for this week, but the Iranian president will soon travel to France with a better bargaining position over Syria.

Iran, an ally of Bashar al-Assad’s regime since the conflict started in 2011, has been arguing that the west should prioritise the fight against Islamic State (Isis) and step aside from the position that the Syrian leader, considered by them to be a part of the problem, must leave.

Critics say Tehran is trying to shield Assad behind a bigger evil and is doing whatever it can to protect its strategic ally while many others believe that the invasion of Iraq and the oustings of Saddam Hussein, and more recently Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, are signs that power vacuums in such a volatile region have proved to be a major challenge.

…

Ali Alfoneh, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, said: “President François Hollande, who cannot count on Washington deploying ground forces in Syria, is now reaching out to Iran and Russia to form an alliance in the fight against Daesh [Isis].

“This in turn legitimises Iran’s military engagement in Syria, which Washington considers as one of the root causes of emergence of Daesh in that country. In that sense, the terrorist attacks in Paris came as manna from heaven for Tehran.”

The Franco-Iranian alliance is likely to prove fragile, Alfoneh argued, because Paris and Tehran pursue opposing goals. “While Paris is committed to annihilation of Daesh, survival of the Assad regime is Tehran’s goal,” he said. In Syria, some analysts say, Tehran is itself prioritising the fight against the Syrian opposition over the fight against Isis.

“To this end, Tehran keeps alive Daesh as a useful enemy, which not only makes Bashar al-Assad appear as the lesser evil, but also legitimises Iran’s military intervention in Syria and provides president Rouhani with access to European capitals as a key player in the conflict.”

… 

Read the full article here.