Syria, Caucasus And Xinjiang In Saudi Arabia's Grand Strategy - Analysis
By Giovanni Daniele Valvo
<
http://www.eurasiareview.com/author/window-on-heartland/>
September 13, 2013
While media attention is currently focused on the developments of the Syrian
crisis, now become a proxy war between a Western-Arab coalition and a
multipolar alliance made up of Iran, Russia and China, much less coverage is
given to the ongoing insurgencies in Russian Northern Caucasus and Chinese
Xinjiang. And yet a red thread links the three conflicts, which are in fact
fuelled by some among the forces currently engaged in the destruction of the
Syrian Arab Republic.
The opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime is a composite
coalition of forces, to which belong the democratic groups of the National
Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, but also the
jihadist factions of the Syrian Islamic front, a Salafist umbrella
organisation founded by eleven Islamist rebel groups on 21 December 2012.
Despite wide international support to the Syrian National Coalition,
recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people by more
than one hundred countries, the rise of the Salafist factions is increasing
the strength of the Islamist front, to the detriment of the more moderate
groups.
The Islamization of the Syrian uprising poses a threat to the existence of
the secular, multi-confessional Syria established by the Baathist rule
should Assad be overthrown by the current opposition forces, which are
increasingly infiltrated by foreign agents and mercenaries. Although an
active role in this regard is been played by both governmental and
non-governmental organizations of key NATO members such as the United
States, France, Britain and Turkey, the countries most involved on the
ground are the absolute monarchies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are also
the main funders of the Salafist militias.
The role played by the Saudis in Syria fits into the broader framework of
Riyadh's support to Islamic extremism throughout Eurasia, from the Balkans
to Central Asia, passing through the Caucasus. Nevertheless, while in the
Balkans the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, though financially helped by
Saudi Arabia, was mostly trained and equipped by the German Federal
Intelligence Service (BND) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
the increasing Salafist character of the insurgencies in Russian Northern
Caucasus and Chinese Xinjiang underlines a much greater Saudi involvement.
The transformation of both regions into independent, Wahhabi states, is
conceived by Riyadh as part of a preventive containment strategy against a
nuclear Iran, whose regional influence might be so extended as to include
majority-Shia Iraq and Azerbaijan, as well as Persian-speaking Afghanistan
and Tajikistan. Hence the importance of encircling a potential Persian bloc
from the West through the establishment of the Syrian Islamic State promoted
by the Syrian Islamic front, from the North through the independence of the
self-proclaimed Caucasus Emirate, and from the East through the independence
of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic State promoted by the Eastern Turkistan
Islamic Movement.
Despite widespread conviction that control of the Tartus naval facility,
currently Russia's only base in the Mediterranean, is the mail goal at stake
in the Syrian war, Iran is indeed the major objective of the external forces
involved in the conflict. Nevertheless, while the United States and its
allies often find themselves facing the dilemma whether to support or not
Wahhabi fundamentalism as a means to put pressure on Tehran, as well as on
Moscow and Beijing, Riyadh's policy proves to be much more resolute, as well
as far-sighted. The clash we are witnessing in Syria is ultimately a
manifestation of the centuries-old struggle between the majority-Sunni Arab
world and the Persian-dominated Shia Islam for control of the Ummah, though
the global geopolitical implications of the ongoing conflict makes its
outcome of utmost importance for the destiny of the entire world.
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Received on Fri Sep 13 2013 - 17:22:59 EDT