What is this campaign for?

Written by Nasser Kandil,

The organized campaign against Hezbollah due to paving the way for the withdrawal of ISIS’s defeated fighters from Qalamoun is astonishing.

ISIS and Al Nusra according to the UN, Arab, and Lebanese classification is the same and the classification of the terrorist organizations does not sort them between good terrorism and bad terrorism or first class terrorism and third class one. During the past years there were many Syrian areas that were purged from Al Nusra under the pressure of the fighting of the Syrian army and Hezbollah, and led to the withdrawal of its fighters to Idlib as the same withdrawal of ISIS from Qalamaoun, but we have not heard any international or regional or Lebanese negative comments that considered that a concession with terrorism.

A few weeks ago, Hezbollah ended his battles victorious in Juroud Arsal and this victory has been culminated with a similar withdrawal of Al Nusra to Idlib, but no one said anything.

The attempt of linking this campaign with the fact that the fate of the kidnapped solders has been revealed as martyrs and the talk about leaving the army to complete its victory means simply that the Lebanese army without a coordination with the Syrian army and Hezbollah has to liberate the Lebanese remaining part, thus ISIS’s militants will withdraw under pressure to the Syrian parts from Qalamoun, thus the Syrian army along with the resistance will fight them there till they subdue to withdrawal. but what would change in the fate of the kidnapped soldiers or in the fate of ISIS’s withdrawal, but only if the intention was that the Lebanese army in coordination with the Syrian army and the resistance will wage a battle to crush the remaining groups in the Lebanese and the Syrian parts, but surely the objectors will find that the ISIS’s withdrawal is easier than the bitterness of coordination, knowing that the crushing was about to lose the opportunities of knowing the fate of the soldiers, and maybe the secret of their fate would die with their leaders, so did the objectors know the fate or know that they will bear the responsibility of the loss of the soldiers’ life because they prevented the army three years ago from freeing its soldiers by force, as the commander of the Commando Regiment the General Shamel Rouqez said at that time, Maybe this explains the anger of some Lebanese but the campaign is bigger and wider so who is behind it?

The source of the campaign reveals its goals, the political and the media escalation is not related to the military pressure till imposing the withdrawal with the individual weapons but to the point to which the militants went. This is clarified by the criticisms on Al-Hurra channel, Radio Sawa and Al Arabiya channel and other media means which are directed by Adam Early in favor of the US intelligence and the campaign of the accompanying declarations under the title of the danger on Iraq. The simple examination reveals that we are talking about countable hundreds that will not change the total balance of ISIS capacities in Deir- Al Zour and Al Mayadeen near the borders of Iraq and which the Americans estimated with more than ten thousands.

The Americans were originally the callers of the war on ISIS, but the withdrawal of ISIS which they sought from Mosul and Raqqa was by keeping the western of Mosul open towards Syria and its southern is open towards Al-Anbar, while leaving the eastern of Raqqa open towards Deir Al Zour and its southern open towards Badia. This was prevented by the Popular Crowd, the Syrian army, and Hezbollah and was supported by Russia and Iran. It is the withdrawal which will grant ISIS an opportunity to perpetuate its battles and will grant the Americans the opportunity of directing it, while the withdrawal which aims to gather Al-Nusra and ISIS in a confined geographical part which will be the resolving battle in the battlefield is a step towards the final resolving not a way to keep ISIS alive as was desired by the Americans if they were given the opportunities to impose their agenda of the war on ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Why are the Americans so upset to this extent? And why do they provoke their groups to open fire?

The checking leads us to the direct and the indirect US focus by the public declaration and the implicit acquiescence on Boukamal which the Americans were surprised due to the negotiating secrecy that it will be the destination of the withdrawal which they thought that it will be to Deir Al Zour. The Americans recognize that Deir Al Zour is the title of the next battle of the Syrian army and that they have no problem that the militants of ISIS will gather there to be killed. The Americans aspire that the groups which they head can have control on Boukamal before the arrival of the Iraqi army and the popular Crowd to Qaem from the Iraqi side, and thus they will achieve their strategic dream by having control on the Syrian -Iraqi borders. Moreover, the supply lines between Boukamal and Deir Al Zour are difficult and complicated thus ISIS cannot enhance them. The withdrawal has changed their considerations and the military effort which is necessary to liberate Boukamal from ISISI needs the capabilities of the Syrian army and the resistance, but the dream of the borders has fallen.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,