The Syrian regime, which refrains from directly participating in the fighting against Israel for a variety of reasons,[1] sees itself as part of the resistance axis led by Iran. The Syrian government media frequently expresses support for Iran and its militias in the region, while strongly criticizing Israel and its ally, the U.S. Furthermore, recent articles in the Syrian government press have claimed that 'the struggle of the resistance axis is not against Israel, which is supported by the U.S., but is a direct struggle against the U.S.' These articles argue that the U.S. is responsible for fueling the conflict in the region, with the aim of ‘imposing its unipolar order on the world and on humanity' and eliminating the resistance movements in order to make the region completely pro-American.
The following are excerpts from some of these articles:
The U.S. Is Fueling The Conflict In The Region To Maintain Its Global Hegemony
Bashar Al-Muhammad, a columnist for Al-Ba'th, the mouthpiece of Syria’s ruling party, argued on October 10, 2024 that the U.S. is exacerbating the conflict in the region so as to avoid losing its global hegemony. Therefore, he added, the current war of the Iranian axis is not against Israel but directly against the U.S. He wrote: "We see that some people espouse a distorted belief that 'the U.S. seeks to sponsor negotiation tracks and is acting to stop the escalation of the conflict in the region.' [They believe this] especially because [U.S. President Joe] Biden repeatedly claims, with a honeyed tongue, that he is working to 'pressure' [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu to engage in negotiations, that he is sending his envoys to the region... and that he is 'halting' arms supplies to the war machine of the [Israeli] entity, [although this is] just lip service. All this is happening while there are evidently [American supply] routes, both maritime and aerial, providing arms to this entity on a daily basis...
"Given everything that has happened and is still happening, we are not just faced with the conclusion that Israel refuses to negotiate. Rather, we must [also] conclude that the U.S. is the one expanding the conflict and escalating tensions to the maximum in order to preserve its flagging hegemony in the region and the world. Based on this, we can draw another conclusion: that the struggle of the resistance axis is not against Israel, which is supported by the U.S. but is a direct struggle against the U.S. [itself]... which is leading the campaign by means of its proxies, its media, and its ground and naval bases in the Middle East, including in Israel.
"Therefore, there is no choice but to correct and unify perspectives and establish a firm belief that there is no regional solution based on negotiations, and that [the war] being waged by the entire resistance axis is the solution that will end the crisis or compel the U.S. to engage in negotiations. This is because it is not in the nature of [the U.S.] to incline towards ceasefires or negotiations, except when it feels weak and when its illusions of victory are shattered..."[2]
The U.S. Seeks To Drown The Region In War In Order To Make It Pro-American
Similarly, Hiba Ali Ahmad, a columnist for the Syrian government daily Tishreen, accused the U.S. of deliberately igniting war in the region in order to reshape and dominate it while also distancing it from Iran. She wrote: "...The U.S. is pushing the occupation entity [i.e., Israel] to drag Iran into war, along with all the countries of the region, based on the assumption that whoever starts the war will lose, and that if Iran does so, it will lose all its powerful bargaining cards. This is compounded by the American efforts to isolate Iran and disconnect it by targeting its 'proxies' in the region... According to the American thinking, this will leave Iran isolated in the next war and thus ensure its defeat...
"But what about the American bases scattered around the region? And what about Iran's threats to attack any place from which an Israeli counterattack is launched? The fact is that the U.S. does not care about the security and stability of the Gulf countries where its military bases are located. On the contrary, it sees this as an opportunity to revive the climate of dispute and division between Iran and these countries, following many attempts to overcome [this division] and renew the relations [between them]... Moreover, the U.S. is deliberately acting to drown the region in war and in the consequences of war, in order to formulate new plans in the domains of politics, economy, energy, and demographics...
"The U.S. currently believes that this is its last opportunity to eliminate the resistance movements and forces... and to establish a new [Middle East] region that is completely [pro-]American. However, this is also the last opportunity for us [in the resistance axis] to complete the path of resistance and thwart all the American plans, especially given that the resistance movements, including all their components, are not what they were in the past; today they are strong, united... determined, willing and better armed."[3]
The U.S. Wants To Subordinate The Regional Countries To Israel And Usurp Their Resources
Another article in the daily Tishreen, published on the anniversary of Hamas' October 7 attack in southern Israel, claimed that the main reason for the outbreak of the Gaza war was an American plan to turn Israel into a trade hub in the region and usurp the resources of its countries. The article stated: "The central factor in the Al-Aqsa Flood [war], which has been ongoing for a year, is the reasons and roots [that led to] this operation. While [various] reasons – such as 75 years of occupation and crimes and 16 years of siege on Gaza by the Zionists and their supporters – were the basic factors that motivated the resistance in Gaza to exercise its legitimate right to defend itself against the occupation, a sober look at the regional developments reveals a greater truth, namely the perceptiveness of the resistance in Gaza, its understanding of the enemy, and its commitment to the region, to the Islamic countries and to all of humanity.
"The latest American plan was to turn the Zionist entity into a hub for energy and trade in the region, whereby the import and export of oil, gas and goods in and out of the region would be conducted through this entity. According to this plan, the countries of the region, and ultimately the [entire] Islamic world, would lose all political, economic and security independence and be subjugated to this entity. Meanwhile, the U.S. would control the region's resources and impose its unipolar order on the world and on humanity.
"Therefore, the Al-Aqsa Flood was not just a Palestinians operation; it was an initiative by the resistance in Gaza, which understood that every blow against the Zionist entity is an act in defense of the Islamic world and humanity as a whole. Hence, supporting Gaza is the duty of every member of the Islamic nation and even of the international community, so as to return the favor done them by the people of Gaza and later [also] by Lebanon..."[4]
"The American Devil" Supports And Fuels Israel's Actions In The Region
Lamis Ouda, a columnist for the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra, argued that the U.S. is complicit in all of Israel's actions in the region as part of its desire to reshape the Middle East according to an American-Israeli plan. She wrote: "We understand very well that the honey of the American support is in the mouth of the Israeli serpent, whose cruel fangs, sunk in the flesh of our region, are sharpened by American whetstones; that the delusions of expansion, inherent in Netanyahu's way of thinking, are maps that the U.S. is interested in; and that the Israeli monster, released from UN demands of accountability, has never been and will never be restrained by America…
"The barbaric atrocities being carried out in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as the attacks on Syrian territory, which we see and which the media lenses document, are plans stamped with the American seal, based on instructions from the Zionist lobby. We are even more aware that the American devil knows all the details of the conflagrations that the Israeli enemy is spreading in our region, and that it supports and is [even] involved in them, fueling them without reservations...
"Biden's statements about his absolute commitment to increasing arms supplies to Israel in order to protect it, and the Pentagon's announcements about supplying the THAAD anti-ballistic missile [defense] system [to Israel], despite the massacres being committed by the enemy against the peoples of the region, repeatedly prove not only the complete American involvement in the flagrant aggression against South Lebanon, Gaza and the entire resistance axis, but also that the current battles are America's battles, aimed at changing the current character of the Middle East by means of explosives, according to [America's] whims of control and the caprice of the Israelis, in order to salvage the failed American-Zionist plan."[5]
