Mr. Hossein Jaberi Ansari discussed with Mehr News Political Service in the first part of the interview earlier last week the Resistance-Hezbollah-Palestinian issue and their ties with the Islamic Revolution. The second part of the interview examined the crisis in Syria and the developments on the ground which drove Russia into action. Jaberi Ansari touched also upon Saudi Arabia as an influential player which not necessarily rewarded its own interests, since they perceived of the alleged threat to their existence too great and thus resorted to too drastic a measure, which in turn, backfired.
A general emphasis promoted by the Islamic Revolution on nations and political groups rather than official states and governments had been on the agenda of the Revolution. How do you think this emphasis changed the political terrain and how it extended our scope of influence in the region?
This is a question not easy to answer, since the route taken would not be measured as a concrete reality; however, it is theoretically possible to discuss the fait accompli, that is, the measures taken in the past; however, we should consider the road not taken, the unexplored possibilities in the region which otherwise would make huge differences in terms of political upper-hand of the Islamic Revolution in the region in reviving the Resistance. Scores should be distributed based on this routes and the results thereof.
Would you think that there would be better alternatives to the current routes to hit higher levels of success in the region?
It is unlikely to be certain that there was better alternatives; the road taken was on the stalemate at that time, with the more evil of the two, that is, before the nations surrender to imperialist front; the Islamic Revolution provided an example to drastically change the ground and the region thus in quite a new setting which now has completed its evolutionary stages through decades; the trend however has experienced lapse recently where the whole Arab and Muslim nations have been mired on internal conflict; before that, a euphoric sense of unity replaced the gloom which had settled in Islamic lands; a belief is restored in the success of the Resistance and the fact that national sovereignty and independence of countries would be realized through Resistance.
The feat of the Revolution has been its championing of a psychological and spiritual mode where material interests is subordinated to more idealism and piety; this is a great achievement and a value-added which turns the Resistance to a popular revolutionary idea; hence, Intifada has direct roots in Islamic Revolution and has accepted great influence from it. This however incited the Zionism and imperialism to deflect the major focus of the Resistance from conflict with the Zionism and interventionist foreign influence to internal factionalism and internecine strife of eroding nature. In the face of this deviation and erosion of forces, our mission is to restore the Resistance to its main path and to that evolutionary process to secure the collective interests of the region.
Regarding your recent meeting with Staffan de Mistura, the question is what concrete outcomes emerge from this and other many meetings? What is your analysis of the issue?
Since the eve of the war in Syria, murmurs of the political solution have been heard, with some circles even making diplomatic overtures for a solution; however, Iran has been by far the most active country who believed no military means would settle the situation in Syria to peace; we believe military option means complete deadlock where crisis and violence ensue; the political solution has now found advocates even in circles once hostile to the idea of considering Assad as a player in Syrian future politics. Many of those same hostile countries set deadlines for the crisis, when is due, the military option would decide the ultimate fate of the country; what the sum of forces of Syrian government, Resistance and the Islamic Republic of Iran achieved and supported is the fact that all major players have come to terms with the reality on the ground that military option would not be expedient in Syria.
Vis-à-vis this admission and recognition, some other players futilely seek defeated solutions which was the major cause behind the failure of negotiations; this is by corollary impossible to test a failed solution. Mr. de Mistura is UNSG envoy to Syrian crisis and one of such representatives who came Iran to device solutions to the crisis.
A second approach endorsed by UN and de Mistura should consider the possibilities and conditions under which political endeavor would bring forth fruits; the first step in such a scheme is to acknowledge the realities of political and military situation and configuration on the ground; it should invite all sides to hope that a genuine change would be by now reaching the political terrain; it should not however be a dark and long tunnel where the end is uncertain; if such a plan is devised where Syrian groups come together and the plan is supported by the international community as an ultimate nostrum, the Islamic Republic of Iran will support it.
With Russia, it is likely that immediately after the war, they would have seen Assad gone since they made no serious entry to the crisis; later and with confrontation becoming more intense, they followed Iran’s suit to take sides in Syria supporting Syrian legitimate government in fight with terrorism; they have been resolute in military campaign to get rid of the crisis in Syria once and for all. This is starkly different with the mentality seeking to agree on ceasefires which only give terrorists time to reorganize and replenish their arms depots and provisions; we think that Russia was under the strong influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syrian setting, just as they were under influence of other players in Libya and acted according to the situation arising.
Along with this influence, a collection of developments including the situation on the ground, changes in the conflict with terrorism, and the international rivalry with the US had been playing a role in leading Russians to change position and join the Syrian government in fight against terrorism.
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