Sheikh Naim Qassem: Syria a swamp where west stuck

Sheikh Naim Qassem who is in Tehran to participate Islamic Unity Conference underway in Tehran, gave an exclusive interview to Mehr News International Service, where he believed that Takfirist-Terrorist insurgency backed by the west had come to failure; “the national expediencies of all these four members of the quadrilateral requires them to prevent a US-led coalition gains upper hand in Iraq and Syria, effectively ruling out political changes in Baghdad and Damascus,” Sheikh Naim Qassem asserted.

“I believe that facing the US-led axis constitutes an inevitable expediency of all countries member to this four-sided alliance, since none of these countries would manage to defend themselves on their own alone; for the very reason, they should give hands to attempts to repel Takfirist groups which recruit fresh fighters from around the world and receive the direct support of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, and financial aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and weapons and logistics from the US and European countries,” he added.

“We now face a grave threat which is unsurmountable unless a coalition such as this establishes itself; however, with blessings from Heaven, the information from the situation on the ground would clearly indicate the Takfirist project coming to its headlong debacle, and the path for advance of western-Zionist project of the imperialism has come to its grinding halt; they were seeking to down Assad and Syrian government within months of battle, however, Syria has been resisting for 5 years with success and it has now recovered, but the west, for sure, has been stuck in this swamp; so the four-member alliance should continue cooperation which will be to the interest of the group at large,” Sheikh Qassem emphasized.

On a question of the most important factors of discord among Muslims and the role of terrorist groups and western propaganda machinery, Hezbollah senior official believed that the widening of the gap between Shias and Sunnis was the major factor to be blamed; “in the second level of importance is political vested interests which assumes a religious hue, since we have not had any direct confrontation based on historical religious questions between two major divisions of Islam,” he emphasized.

“The difference is simple enough to be put to words: Saudi Arabia seeks dominance over Iraq and Yemen. In this campaign, no Shia-Sunni duality and opposition have place and quota. This is a sort of political supremacy which Saudi princes try to seek in the region. The US has always come to seek dominance as an imperliast power and colonialist power, and Israel as an occupying force; so, there is no such thing as Shia-Sunni sectarian strife dominant in the region, rather, the petty politics assumes a religious façade and finds the US and Zionism on its side,” said Hezbollah deputy-secretary general.

“A small minority of Muslims who believe in Wahhabist tenets, excommunicating all other Muslims, contributes directly to sectarianism; this is not merely sectarian, but is an issue within Sunni Islam itself as well, as majority Sunnis oppose their utterly fundamental reading of the book,” Sheikh Naim Qassem told Mehr News.

On the role of great hegemonic powers in their plans to disintegrate the whole region, Hezbollah official believed that the US was quintessence of the global imperialism, which seeks to dominate the region, viewing the discord among Muslims and destabilizing those countries via internecine strife and civil war as easy means to find and maintain dominance; “however, it is far from clear that they merely seek geographical disintegration or any other types of division of the region; perhaps this side would seem pointless as politically collapsed regimes which are in conflict with each other ensnares them in greater issues than disintegration,” he concluded.