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Essential regional planning for balance

As we have seen, Iran’s strategic importance cannot be overestimated. The so-called ‘sanctions of the international community’ actually have the effect of pushing Iran into the arms of China, Russia, Turkey, and India (who ignore the sanctions), and represent nothing more than Atlanticist fears that Iran will be able to rebuild its former sphere of influence, get along well with Europe, and stabilise vast land areas that harbour vital routes that can play an important role away from the Atlanticist-dominated sea routes.

Washington’s paranoid reactions against Iran have always been aimed at a number of objectives, which we discuss below.

Protect, destabilise, surround

– To protect the state of Israel from Iran as an economic, energy and general geopolitical rival. In the words of US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barak Hussein Obama, ‘Israel’s security is sacrosanct’, consistent with the will of the American Zionist lobby.

– Destabilise all Iranian borders and prevent Iran from connecting territorially with Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, India, Russia and China, especially through energy projects (oil and gas pipelines, etc.). As an ‘intermediate empire’ between the Roman and Chinese empires, the Persians have always needed ports on the Mediterranean and routes to East Asia to prosper. Atlanticism must counter this by preventing, for example, the consolidation of projects such as the IPI pipeline.

– Surrounding Iran with a ring of Atlanticist military bases (Iraq, the Emirates, Bahrain, Afghanistan) and Atlanticist satellite states (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia), as well as massing troops around the country to exert pressure and perhaps force it to defend itself, which would serve as a pretext to attack it militarily. The United Arab Emirates seems to be the country where this concentration of troops will be strongest, with several US facilities (drone base, naval base, CIA intelligence centre and training complex of the private military company Academi – formerly Blackwater/Xe Services). Azerbaijan also serves as a proxy for Israel in the region. Together with the Taliban office in Qatar and other facilities, an infrastructure is being formed in the Gulf for recruiting, training and financing jihadist mercenaries to do the dirty work for Atlanticism in Syria, Pakistan, Chechnya, Libya, Somalia, the Maghreb and wherever else it is needed.

– Prevent Iran from connecting to China, especially through a pipeline through the former Soviet space of Central Asia, or simply by extending the IPI.

Close off access to the Mediterranean

– Block any Persian attempt to approach the Mediterranean, including Syria. This implies destabilising Iraq as a staging area and Syria and Lebanon as its main allies in the Mediterranean. The uprisings promoted in Syria by Atlanticism can largely be interpreted as Israel’s and Turkey’s desire to appropriate Syrian natural gas (the entire eastern Mediterranean is full of natural gas – it was recently estimated that 3.5 trillion cubic metres could be found off the coasts of Egypt, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey), of the Arab gas pipeline (note the important ramifications in Homs, a city where there have been very serious clashes and atrocities by the ‘rebels’) of the Arab gas pipeline (note the important ramifications in Homs, a city where there have been very serious clashes and atrocities by the ‘rebels’), as well as preventing the construction of two oil pipelines (agreed in September 2010) and a gas pipeline called the Islamic Gas Pipeline (July 2011) that would connect the Iraqi oil fields of Akkas and Kirkuk and the huge Iranian gas field of South Pars with the Syrian port of Baniyas (a city close to the Russian naval base of Tartus and where there have also been heavy foreign-funded conflicts), Damascus and even Lebanon. This would be tantamount, among other things, to re-establishing the route of the destroyed Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline, which was bombed by the US when it invaded Iraq in 2003. The aim of all these ‘heretical’ Iran-Iraq-Syria pipelines: to supply Europe with energy without passing through Atlanticist-controlled waters or lands and, moreover, following ‘logical’ geographical routes in full harmony with the ancient Silk Road. The small but influential Qatari petrol-monarchy sees these projects as rivals to its ideal, which would be Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Gulf of Aqaba-Gulf of Suez-Mediterranean, and which would also increase Israeli influence in the Pentalasia.

Until shortly before the recent events of 7 December 2024, with the fall of the Arab Republic of Syria, the creation in Syria of large coastal energy hubs such as Russia-sponsored Baniyas would compete directly with the US-sponsored Turkish port of Ceyhan. Lebanon has over the years taken the form of an Iranian protectorate and realised the Persian desire to reach the Mediterranean. Both Syria and Lebanon have outstanding territorial disputes with Israel, largely revolving around offshore natural gas, aquifers, and mountain dominance, particularly in the Golan Heights.

The formation of the Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah axis (the so-called Resistance) has always found blessing from Moscow. It is worth mentioning that in early 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Damascus to ‘distance itself from the Resistance’. The provocative response of (former) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to meet in public with Ahmadinejad (at the time president of Iran) and the late Hassan Nasrallah (secretary general of Hezbollah), sign with them a document humorously titled ‘Distance Reduction Treaty’ and declare that he must have misunderstood the translation of Clinton’s words. The Syrian president’s humour must not have amused Washington: Obama responded by extending sanctions against Syria for two years.

The reason why the ‘international community’ (i.e. the US-dominated countries) has always been so interested in eliminating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is that since May 2009 it had been promoting the so-called Four Seas Strategy: turning Syria into a crossroads of energy routes from the Caspian, Black Sea, Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. In reality, through the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), Syria would also put a foot in the Red Sea, exercising more of a Five Seas Strategy: the Pentalasia domination strategy. Assad had declared: ‘When the economic space between Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq is integrated, we will connect the Mediterranean, the Caspian, the Black Sea and the Gulf (…). Once these four seas are connected, we will become the obligatory intersection of the whole world for investment, transport and more (…). We are talking about the centre of the world. Syria, like Iran, is also surrounded by a ring of Atlanticist bases’.

Diverting trade and rewriting financial zones of influence

– By promoting ‘trade routes’ (i.e. oil and gas pipelines) that explicitly avoid passing through Iran, Armenia, Russia and Syria, they promote other geopolitical actors such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel. In these spaces, Israel is actively involved in providing security and surveillance services, effectively militarising the region. Israel, which wants to become Europe’s energy spigot (which it can hardly do without dominating the entire Pentalasia in an Eretz Israel strategy), intends to rebuild an oil pipeline (the old Mosul-Haifa pipeline) and build a new gas pipeline from Iraq to the port of Haifa, which is currently blocked by the strong Iranian influence in the region. Should this project be completed (and the occupation of Iraq had much to do with this), Israel would be interested in a free Kurdistan, dependent on Tel Aviv for oil revenues and giving Israel decisive influence in the greater region. Israel also intends to connect the important Turkish energy hub of Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon via an undersea pipeline that explicitly avoids passing through Syria. Tel Aviv’s strategy is to have all oil pipelines from the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf and Sudan pass through its territory. – Preventing Iran from torpedoing the petrodollar business with its financial initiatives to undermine the role of the petrodollar as the currency of international trade: Iran has been accepting euros in exchange for oil since 2003.

In 2007, Tehran stopped billing oil in dollars, feeling strong about Hezbollah’s victory in the 2006 Lebanon war. In 2011, it opened the Kish exchange and recently India started paying for Iranian oil in gold, while China is expected to follow suit. It is worth mentioning that the US dollar is used not only in the US, but also in El Salvador, Ecuador and Panama, and that the currencies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain), Jordan, Lebanon, Eritrea, Djibouti, Belize and several Caribbean islands are linked to the dollar, as they have a fixed exchange rate with it. As well as being used in the EU eurozone, the euro is used in Montenegro and the Serbian province of Kosovo, while the currencies of Bosnia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Cape Verde, Comoros, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe, the two African Franco-CFA zones (French African colonies), the Franco-CFP zone (French Pacific colonies), Greenland and other island dependencies have a fixed exchange rate against the euro. These areas of financial influence are supported, among other things, by trade in oil and natural gas in their respective currencies. Countries getting out of petrodollars or petro-euros sabotage this global network and Iran tends to create its own financial hunting ground.

Preventing Iran from becoming the second nuclear power in the Middle East (after Israel, a country that has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty) in order to safeguard Atlanticist hegemony in the region and to prevent greater energy autarky from allowing it to export more hydrocarbons. The sabotage of Iran’s nuclear programme also provides the perfect pretext for covert operations on Iranian soil: kidnappings and assassinations of scientists, politicians and senior military officers, usually with the help of the Mossad. On 28 September 2012, Obama removed the MKO (Mujahedin e-Khalq Organisation), a fundamentalist militia based in Iraq that has been acting against Iranian interests with US support since the 1980s, from the list of terrorist organisations. – Sabotaging Iran as a vital water passage for Central Asia. Plans are underway to build an aqueduct from the aquifers of the Persian ethnic group of Tajikistan to the thirsty Arab countries. The aqueduct will necessarily pass through Iran and give it enormous power over the desert petrol-dictatorships of the Persian Gulf.

Preventing unity and cooperation

– Prevent Iran from giving a strong structure to all Persian ethnic groups, e.g. through the Alliance of Persian Speaking Countries, created in July 2006.

– Isolating Iran from the ‘international community’, so far unsuccessfully, given Iran’s relations with the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, all of Central Asia, Armenia, Serbia, Sudan, Nigeria, Eritrea, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, and many others who have refused to adhere to sanctions against Tehran.

– Prevent Iran from promoting dissent in the West as the US does in the East.

– Prevent Iran from becoming the EU’s ‘energy tap’ (which, before sanctions, bought 20% of its oil) and from forging lucrative ties with our continent, especially Germany (which, before the last round of sanctions, was Iran’s second largest trading partner after China), Austria (which, according to the president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, was ‘Iran’s gateway to the EU’, also thanks to the business of the oil company OMV), France (important business for the oil company Total before the penultimate round of sanctions), Spain (Repsol had important interests in the country and Iran was our first oil supplier, before Libya; the latest round of sanctions has had the effect of making fuel more expensive and handing us over to the Arab petro-regimes, which have made inroads into the world of football and advertising), Italy (Iran’s fifth largest trading partner) and Greece. By allowing themselves to be blackmailed by Washington and London, these European countries, joined by Japan, South Korea and the GCC countries, have shown that they lack sovereignty and are not free to defend their true national interests within a logical and coherent geostrategy. The EU, with its subservience to Atlanticism, missed an opportunity to get along with Iran and form a petrol-euro that would assert it against the US.

– Prevent Iran from undermining the petrol-dictatorships of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan, backed by London and Washington. – Exacerbate sectarianism and religious radicalism everywhere between Western Sahara and Indonesia. Provoke conflict between Shias and Sunnis to destabilise the region and possibly provoke a macro-civil war. Shia faith and cohesion must be contained with Sunni radicalism financed by Washington and Riyadh. To avoid the sectarianisation (and thus the balkanisation) of the Middle East, the model should be that of Hezbollah: a Lebanese-nationalist rather than a sectarian-religious movement. Iran should rely on ethnic and religious groups that offer a link to the West, such as Christians (Orthodox, Armenian, etc.).

Christians (Orthodox, Armenians, Copts, Catholics, Maronites, etc.), Alawites, Ismailites, Sufis, Druze and others. Washington, on the other hand, desires the eradication of many of these communities, which tend to prevent the divorce between West and East and are perfectly valid partners for peaceful and orderly relations between Europe and the Middle East. This would very well explain the Pope’s recent visit to Lebanon (without forgetting that the Vatican remains an international power to be reckoned with on the chessboard).

– Fuelling ethnic hatred and separatism in Iran, in particular using ethnic Belucians and Azeris.

– Using the Persian-Shia threat to convince the Gulf Cooperation Council of the need for a NATO presence and a regional anti-Iranian mini-alliance in the region, including a joint missile defence (a euphemism for ‘both offensive and defensive missile facilities’). These exercises complement the integration of US-Israeli military and intelligence command structures in the Middle East, as well as the deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel.

In conclusion, it is clear that the evolution of the Pentalasia has been and continues to be central in defining the Middle East and the entire geopolitical Rimland. To whom the control of Pentalasia will go, will probably go the control of the entire Rimland or, from a different perspective, the control of an entire global pan-area.