Andrew Korybko is a political analyst, journalist, and a member of the expert council for the Institute of Strategic Studies and Predictions at the People’s Friendship University of Russia. He specializes in Russian affairs and geopolitics, specifically the US strategy in Eurasia.
His other areas of focus include tactics of regime change, color revolutions, and unconventional warfare used across the world. His book, “Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change”, extensively analyzes the situations in Syria and Ukraine and claims to prove that they represent a new model of strategic warfare being waged by the US.
In order to shed light on the recent developments in the Middle East, Mehr News reached the American-born, Moscow-based political analyst for an exclusive interview.
When asked to comment on the recent illegal move of the US in Syria during which the country’s fighter jets’ harassed the Iranian airliner Mahan by conducting some dangerous maneuvering close to the passenger plane as it was flying over Syria’s strategic al-Tanf region, Korybko said that the US acted very recklessly and could have caused a catastrophe, adding that causing a catastrophe could have been as well one of the reasons why Washington did it.
“The United States has an interest in "defending" its illegal military presence in Syria and around al-Tanf, and this action has drawn global attention to those interests. If the plane had crashed as a result of this move, then the United States would have tried to find a way to blame Iran for it,” he added.
About the US illegal presence in Syria, he said that Syria is unable to put an end to the illegal military presence of the United States on its soil.
“Russia will not intervene to help Syria,” he said, adding “because Moscow's military mission in that country is only to fight terrorism…Iran is Syria’s only ally that wants to drive the United States out of Syria.”
About the possibility of a coalition in the region formed between Iran and the member states of the Resistance, he said that these countries have a legitimate right to form a coalition, but it is very dangerous to do so.
“Because Israel is unlikely to allow the Iranian Air Force to regularly escort civilian aircraft very close to its "borders,” he added.
Most likely, Tel Aviv would want to push the two to the brink of war by allowing its fighter jets to fly closely to Iranian jets and passenger planes – just as the US recently has done, in hopes that such a move would cause an accident that could lead to a plane crash or a fierce battle between the two sides’ air forces, according to Korybko.
When asked to comment on the success of Donald Trump's maximum pressure strategy against Iran, Korybko said that the strategy had not been successful.
“While one should not deny the resulting economic damage and the capacity of this policy to provoke social unrest, the United States has so far failed because of the ideological cohesion of the Iranian people and their resistance economy,” he maintained.
About the various aspects of Iran-China economic-security cooperation, he said that the cooperation is mutually beneficial for both countries: Investment for Iran and the revival of the Belt and Road Initiative for China.
When asked if the deepening of Iran's relations with the East, especially with China and Russia, would challenge US hegemony, he said “while they [China and Russia] send the message that Iran will not surrender to US unipolar hegemony, none of the Chinese and Russian multipolar partners are willing to directly defend Iran.”
He went on to add that in order to strengthen Iran's overall defense capabilities, these countries would sell military equipment to Iran and make strategic investments in the form of various megaprojects.
“This support makes it less likely for US plots to succeed,” he said, adding that both Russia and China, contrary to some assumptions, will lend support to Iran to advance their own interests rather than out of some ideological inclination to challenge the United States.
MNA/