Right now inside Syria, Hezbollah fighters – backed by the Syrian government, Iran and Lebanon – are fighting Al Qaeda, and Muslim Brotherhood terrorist fighters – backed by the U.S., Israel, the Eurozone, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
BBC reports:
The military chief of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels … claimed that more than 7,000 fighters of the Lebanese Shia movement [Hezbollah ] were taking part in attacks on the rebel-held town of Qusair.
The French foreign minister has estimated the number at 3,000-4,000.
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Hezbollah fighters have been in Syria for some time now but their numbers appear to have grown rapidly over the last few weeks ….
Not only did the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia largely create, sponsor and fund Al Qaeda, but also two other groups fighting on the side of the Syrian rebels: Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is a proxy war.
As we’ve documented in detail, the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and their allies back the Sunni jihadists against Shia Muslims. Indeed, the U.S. is involved in a religious war – between the two factions of Islam (and is actually backing the most violent elements) – as part of a geopolitical strategy to exert control over the natural gas market.
BBC notes:
[There is] growing concern in the US that the conflict in Syria is morphing into a complex regional war by proxy.
ABC News reports:
Hezbollah and Al Qaeda fighters edging closer to full scale confrontation
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Syria’s conflict is often described as a “civil war,” but that is only true insofar as it has yet to spill over into another country on a large scale or draw in too many different forces. But it is the quintessential proxy war, with the Alawite (an offshoot of Shia Islam) Assad regime backed up by Shia allies Hezbollah and Iran, as well as Russia and China.
The Sunni rebels are supported by the Islamist rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, as well as the U.S., France, Britain and others.
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In December, Syrian rebels [i.e. Sunnis] burned down a Shiite mosque in northern Idlib province. Fighting between Hezbollah and Jabhat al-Nusra is being waged closer and closer to the Zeinab shrine. Shiite villages are coming under attack by militants who praise Osama bin Laden and Sunni villagers are being slaughtered by regime loyalists. Sectarian fighting has already leaked across the border into northern Lebanon. [For example, Syrian rebels – Sunnis – apparently shelled Shiites inside neighboring Lebanon.] The stage has been set.
“When Hezbollah and Israel are both actively fighting in the same third country,” writes Ramy Khoury, a professor of international affairs at the American University of Beirut, “and Iran and the United States are both actively warning about their determination to act to protect their allies and their interests in that same third country, it is time to make another pot of coffee and make sure you have plenty of fresh batteries at home for your transistor radio.”
All people of good faith are calling for an end to all foreign soldiers and foreign weapons in Syria … be they from Iran, Lebanon and Russia, or the U.S., Israeli, Saudi Arabia and Europe.
Of course, the U.S. has been arming the Syrian opposition since 2006.
Indeed, American neoconservatives planned regime change in Syria 20 years ago … and considered carrying out acts of violence and blaming it on the Syrian government as an excuse for regime change was discussed over 50 years ago by British and American leaders.
But the answer is not to send more arms to “our” terrorists to fight “their” terrorists … or vice versa.
The answer is for all sides to stop pouring gas on the fire, getting all foreign troops and arms out, and letting the Syrian people sort it out.
