Friday’s Talk from Tehran- 2- Nasser Kandil

The regional and the international files are as a number of carpets or water supply systems operated simultaneously: (Nuclear file between raising the enrichment, leaving the treaty, and abolishing the arms embargo) ( Afghanistan is an open battlefield where settlements are conditioned by the American departure) ( Iraq is an operations arena unannounced by the Americans – the popular and political resistance escalation) ) Syria is a field of integration with Russia and the containment of Turkey under the ceiling of the Syrian sovereignty) ( the backgrounds of the Deal of Century after the elections and turning the challenge into an opportunity).
For the second week, I devote this Friday’s Talk for Tehran and my visit for six days along with the accompanying meetings with decision-makers and important leaders who made it possible to know how the Iranian leadership sees the regional and the international files. After I devoted the previous Friday’s Talk to the Iranian interior, in this edition, I will deal with analyses, readings, positions, and decisions that form the pillars of the Iranian position in approaching the different files from the nuclear file to the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and what is beyond the Deal of the Century and how to deal with it.
The discussion of files together, why not?
Many people think that except the major countries which have enormous financial and military capacities it is not possible to follow up the complicated files without falling into the problem of priorities. While Iran seems smoothly capable to combine between presence and effectiveness in issues that have no link other than being issues that concern Iran, it may be important to Iran that they are issues that concern America too. Iran does not need to manage the different intertwined issues together from the history of heritage and culture that the Iranians inherit since they have two main resources for that. First, their professionalism of weaving carpets, this profession does not only need patience, the ability to wait, perfectness, accuracy, and distinction but also the ability to gather many things at once. The tradition of an Iranian family for thousands of years begins with weaving a carpet with every newborn, where the carpets are weaved together simultaneously one is preceded while the other is delayed according to the need and sometimes for the dates of marriages. This is the same as making canals for drawing water from dozens of springs and wells to dozens of towns and villages. For 2700 years, Iran is still drinking and watering more than forty villages and towns in Khorasan from canals that do not leak, it reaches to all homes, fields, and orchards, by running under the ground. They are run by the villagers who make maintenance, as hundreds of water supply systems spread in Iran, which imposed the living in the lower part of the foothills to facilitate the flow of water by the force of gravity. Second, The Iranians are accustomed to the state of linkage and intertwining of many files. It does not confuse them to manage their nuclear file while they are concerned with the battles of Yemen and Palestine and present in Afghanistan and Iraq, and partners in the political equations and the battlefields in Syria.
The nuclear file:
The politicians, diplomats, and those who are concerned with the Iranian nuclear file technically converge with those concerned in security that the political complicated path is still active despite the escalation in the Iranian- American relationships. Iran has progressed much than it was at the date of signing the nuclear agreement at the technical level; now it is enough to say that it possesses modern centrifuges of a high enrichment capacity equivalent to twice of what it was before at 20%, it has now what it can double the enriched quantities throughout the one day to be equal to what it needs six weeks of enrichment at a rate of less than three or four times. Technically, Iran is of no less experience than the capable nuclear countries which have the full scientific cycle. Politically and diplomatically, a senior official who is concerned with the foreign affairs sees that the open confrontation with Washington about the nuclear file and other files after the assassination of the Commander Qassem Soleimani does not mean that official contacts across the Swiss who sponsor the American interests in Iran have stopped but may be they could more effective than before, along with indirect communication network that includes Oman, Qatar, Russian, Japan, and France. All of these countries have reasons as Iran which kept them for political solutions that are restricted on resolving some outstanding issues just as issues of detainees and humanitarian needs and the import of some of the Iranian needs from America that are not covered by the ban, and which do not take the first place politically because in Iran the priority is to show ability to impose the American withdrawal from the region even if there were opportunities of understandings they will be postponed, and because the American electoral time is not suitable for any serious political research. Many ministers and senior advisors assure that Iran is not concerned with what will result from these elections; it does not have plans for the post- elections. The Iranians consider that the American withdrawal from the nuclear understanding is not a nuclear matter rather it is political and related to the region affairs especially the unstable security of Israel, and the seeking to extract Iran through the sanctions on the nuclear file is just to bargain Iran to stop its support of the resistance movements. The Iranians distinguish between Europe’s desire and its inability to protect the nuclear understanding and Washington’s lack of desire and its ability to disrupt the nuclear understanding. They explain the European desire of the political and economic interests towards the higher interest in stability and fighting the terrorism which lives in anxiety, chaos, and vacancy and the lack of the American desire due to the absence of the economic and political interests and the priority of the security interests governed mainly by Israel that makes the nuclear file, siege, and sanctions mere arenas and tools to express the American need of negotiation, hoping to get gains for the Israeli security. Therefore, the Iranians graduate in the nuclear escalation from within the agreement, they threatened Europe of the difficult exit from the treaty on the non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons if they leave the understanding or if they go to the Security Council to present the Iranian nuclear file, despite the fact that Iran does not concern to that due to the reliable Russian and Chinese vetoes, but according to Iran the protection of the agreement is a common interest. In this Fall Iran will benefit from lifting the ban on its sale and purchase of weapons and this is known by the Europeans. Just for that an Iranian official says that the Foreign Minister of the European Union Josep Borrell has ended his mission successfully through drawing the rules of engagement while Europe was unable to perform its obligations in accordance to the agreement.
Afghanistan
Since the first days of their entry to Afghanistan, the Americans knew that Iran is their partner in the Afghani file. The geographical neighboring along with the spreading of Pashtun between the borders of the two countries has contributed in playing a role in the great demographic intertwining just as the presence of Hazara (the Shiites of Afghanistan) who play a role in another intertwining. Most of Afghanistan’s needs of fuel, vegetables, meat, and flour come from Iran. Furthermore, many of the Afghani middle class people teach their sons at the universities of Iran where the rich of Afghanistan and the sheikh of their tribes spend their vacancies on the Caspian Sea or in its cold places and where they find in Iran modern services that are not available in Afghanistan. The Iranian military presence in Afghanistan does not need a proof, since many of the armed factions have been coordinating with Iran and consulting its leaders since the days of Ahmed Shah Masoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatya. According to the Iranian leaders regarding the situation nowadays the negotiations of the Americans and Taliban Movement are moving from failure to another and will fail except if the Americans accept the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. Few days ago a ministerial conference has been held in which Afghanistan, the governments of India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan participated. The Iranians do not hide their conviction of the fragility of the government of Ashraf Ghani and the demonstration of Taliban on two-thirds of Afghanistan which the Americans were unable to confront. More importantly, the Iranians are aware that Taliban is a false arena of Islamic religiousness that is divided between moderation and extremism and has an incubating environment for Al-Qaeda along with a national Afghani arena that focuses on ousting the Americans and the preparation for a constitution and elections through a government of national unity that supports Iran. The Iranians know that their call for the American departure from the region has supported the Afghani movements, formations, and factions whether from the traditional friends of Iran or from the national and moderated environments of Taliban in addition to the Brigade of Tatemiyoun whom the Commander Qassem Soleimani supervised on its support, supplied it with capabilities, and set up its regular formations, where the most prominent units of it participated in the defense of Syria against ISIS and Al-Qaeda formations and whose its leader Mohammed Jaafar Al-Husseini nicked as “Abu Zainab” died of his wounds during the battles in Syria. The Iranian expectations concerning Afghanistan revolve around one goal; the inescapable American withdrawal.
Iraq
The Iranians take into consideration the historiographical factors of their relationship with Iraq and the effect of the presence of a Shiite Majority in Iraq whether by virtue of greatening the role of Iran or weakening it, but today they focus on a pivotal role of a collective ceiling represented by the reference of Al Najaf on which the Americans and the Gulf People try to create a fabricated clash between it and the Holy status of Qom or the reference of the Leader of the Islamic Republic Al Imam Ali AL Khamenei according to the rules of the Wilayat Al Faqih. Under the ceiling of this reference the Iranians aspire at the unity of the Shiite arena as a safety way to confront the American project and to the repercussions of the economic intertwining and the ethnic and security intertwining with Kurdistan. They depend on three critical elements that ensure the impossibility of the success of the Americans in manipulating the decision of their withdrawal from Iraq. The first factor is the position of Al Sayyed Moqtada Al-Sadr as a partner in the battle of ousting the Americans due to his independent national privacy that defies all the words that Iran imposed on the Iraqis to oust the Americans. The positions of Al Sayyed Al-Sadr stem from his relationship with the Sunni environment and his principled position against the occupation in addition to his refusal of the participation in the political process and his early calls for resistance. The second factor is the martyrdom of the Iraqi beloved Commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis who is different from the leaders who participated in the political process and were accused of charges of corruption and wealth, he preserved the purity of the revolutionaries and mujahideen and their modesty and austerity, and he took care of the poor and the needy. The martyrdom of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis made the issue of ousting the Americans an Iraqi issue that concerned the resistance forces, and everyone who is committed to the concept of Iraqi sovereignty. The third factor, Iran is open to all the forces which link its call for the expel of the American occupation with the exit of all foreign forces from Iraq and neutralizing it from the regional conflict and with the confrontation of corruption. The Iranian leaders sympathize with this slogan and consider it capable of ensuring an Iraqi national state that reassures them and makes them less preoccupied with the Iraqi concerns. The Iranian leaders speak out publicly that there is an urgent need for a new kind of ruling different from that established by Paul Bremer during the occupation and formed the main reason for the widespread of corruption and sectarianism, and a suitable environment for quotas and strife. But the Iranians as governmental officials and concerned in Iraq in leading the Revolutionary Guards and follow-up analysts meet on the fact that the Americans are losing daily through killed and wounded in the resistance operations which they hide them, but the days to come will show the facts that will no longer be hidden.
Gulf and Yemen
The Iranian-Gulf communications exist once directly and once indirectly, but these relationships are tensioned not due to the American-Gulf relationships or the Gulf role in the Deal of Century as much as because they are related to the prolonged aggression against Yemen. The Iranians express their admiration of Ansar Allah and say that we do not negotiate on the behalf of any ally but we pave the way for the direct negotiation with them. This has happened before Stockholm Agreement concerning Al Hodeida. They consider that the continuation of the war on Yemen has become nonsense since the security of the Gulf countries is subject to danger and there is no hope from changing the military equation to weaken Ansar Allah, where the western allies of the Gulf countries do not hide their tiredness from the Gulf stalemate in getting out of war and finding a realistic political exit without impossible conditions that cannot be imposed on Ansar Allah. They say that they advised the Gulf people repeatedly to accelerate in finding a political solution as well as they contributed in creating a suitable environment to help the UN envoy in his negotiating endeavors, but the Gulf stubbornness and the pretension of cleverness of being positive and the preparation for a new round of war is still dominant on the thought of the Saudi and Emirati governments despite the repetitive Emirati promises of withdrawal. A senior Iranian official said maybe the Americans after the new rounds of confrontation with Iran try to keep the Gulf in the face of confrontation in order to extort them with an illusion of danger that threats their security and in order to sell them more weapons. But this means more losses and developments that are not controlled. The Iranian official added that the owners of the glass cities are right in their fear but they have to move quickly to find political solutions to avoid the worst.
Syria
A senior Iranian official concerned with the Syrian issues, Astana Talks and Sochi Conference and concerned with the military and political cooperation with each of Syria and Russia said that the end of the war on Syria is imminent and that the situation of Syria has been resolved, the issue is just a matter of time, Syria with its borders which we knew in 2011 will return unified once again under the control of the Syrian army, but Syria which we knew politically in 2011 is difficult to return to what it was before. Since the victory of the Syrian state against division, fragmentation, and occupation is something and the need of the political reform is something else. He explained that this is agreed upon through a Syrian-Russian-Iranian understanding from the beginnings, other Iranian officials think that there is an indispensable need to deal with Turkey under the title of containment, Turkey which played a destructive role in Syria throughout the past years and now is playing in its last card to obstruct the ability of the Syrian army of imposing its control on more geography. The containment means the repelling when needed even by force and the involvement into settlements and understandings. The Iranians think that the Turks will repeat what they did in Aleppo battles, they will bet on the battlefield and will adapt with the outcomes, as the Muslim Brotherhood whom embraced by Turkey which tries to impose their role in the coming Syrian political process, after they drove Syria to war. The Iranians officials wonder about how to contain the sectarian division especially the effects left by war as the extremism in the Sunni arena and the Gulf finance which had dangerous consequences. They still think of the possibility of the inclusion of the Muslim brotherhood in a well-studied political process although they know that the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is opposing their participation and consider their participation a danger that must be avoided. The Iranians think that these contradictory trends with the Syrian leadership will not affect anything since any work in Syria must be under the Syrian constants; they recognize that the behavior of the Turks and the Muslim Brotherhood grants credibility to the fears of the Syrian leadership. They think that in the end of imposing the Syrian sovereignty in the battlefield three issues must be dealt; first, how to work according to Adana Agreement in a way that ensures the reassurance of the security Turkish fears. Second, how to redistribute the constitutional powers between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. Third; how to arrange the parliamentary elections in a way that gets popular and international legitimacy where no one is excluded. The main concern of Iran in Syria is the Israeli threats of a war of attrition with the Americans. The Iranians hope that this happens because now Iran has offers of power that can show the magnitude of remorse of the Israelis as a result of any military tampering or security folly. The officials who are concerned with security and military affairs reveal that the response to any Israeli aggression against the Iranian forces in Syria will be carried out this time from inside Iran according to Iranian military official statement.
The Deal of the Century
The Iranians who follow-up the official political files agree with the talk that the timing of the announcement of the Deal of Century comes as a result of electoral backgrounds, they try to deeply explain this folly by unifying the Palestinians under the option of confrontation and affecting the meditate position of America between the Palestinians and the Israelis and the influence which it grants to Washington among the Palestinian leaderships. They did not see a logical reason for the situation of the Arab rulers who are undergoing the normalization with Israel, and who did not mind to end the Palestinian cause despite the embarrassment of expressing publicly of the acceptance of the American plan, while neither the American nor the Israeli has what makes it possible to impose it even by force or with a Palestinian partner who can accept it. The only interpretation after the assassination of the Commander Qassem Soleimani is the despair from imposing a settlement because the initiative has been turned to the resistance forces in the region and the inability of the supposed partners in the settlement of ensuring security to the occupation entity. Knowing that in the past this security was a sufficient reason for the accepting the ideas of abandoning geography, but now the full control on geography after the absence of a settlement that ensures security has become the way for security that needs an American guarantees to continue the flow of the American money and weapons despite the processes of annexation and Judaism which form an alternative to a settlement with a American- Israeli consensus. The announcement of the Deal of Century was a political legal framework to ensure that. Therefore, Israel has resorted to the procedures of annexation, expansion, and displacement under the title of more security. The Americans and the Israelis think that the occupation entity will become securer with these procedures; they think that it becomes safer after the assassination of the Commander Soleimani. While the follow-up officials say that what is needed is that the Americans and the Israelis discover that the entity becomes less secure whether through the popular resistance represented by the intifada or through the armed resistance which will find its way towards to the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the occupation territories in 1948. The Deal of the Century has renewed the fate partnership between these movements and the people of the occupied territories in 1967 after they were separated by the projects of negotiation and settlement which do not cover the people of the occupied territories in 1948. The Iranians know that the resistance has capacities and know their impact on the security of the occupation entity and its vital installations whenever the Israelis think of a new war on Gaza, which will form a strategic base for the resistance in all the territories of Palestine.
The Fifth decade
Iran is entering the fifth decade of revolution and is still vivid, it refuses the theory of the Iranian influence in the region, but it sees it a formation of the sources of power against the American and Israeli projects, as it refuses the theory of the state and the revolution and their contradiction as the theory of spreading the concept of the revolution. The state’s legitimacy comes from its commitment to the issue of the first liberation humanly, religiously, and morally (Palestinian cause) which means the continuation of revolution. Iran since the victory of revolution is progressing according to a plan. The first decade was through steadfastness and repelling the attacks especially the war launched by the former Iraqi president under Gulf support and armament and western support. The second decade was for construction, the third decade was for possessing the capacities, the fourth decade was to stabilize the balances of power and drawing equations. While the fifth decade was for achieving the goals and turning them into an agenda while the bloods of the martyr the Commander Soleimani will be a decade of liberating Jerusalem and ousting the American occupation from the region.
Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

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