Qandil

In a recent interview on Al Mayadeen, Qandil, who has close relations with Hezbollah, declared that the US now has to choose between either committing to an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and reining in Tel Aviv, or a war scenario in which the Axis of Resistance will openly target Israel.

The ‘Axis of Resistance’ broadly refers to a strategic anti-Israel/anti-US imperialist alliance composed of, but not limited to, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi, Yemen’s Ansarullah, and various Palestinian armed factions.

Source: Al Mayadeen (YouTube):  Date: April 14, 2021

Transcript:

Editor-in-Chief of the Lebanese newspaper Al-Binaa, Nasser Qandil:

I would like to add certain (inside) information. Yesterday evening, I received certain (inside) information from influential leaders in the Axis of Resistance that the decision of a direct confrontation has been taken. Open confrontation is around the corner, and unless Washington succeeds in deterring Israel from further escalation, the Israeli interior will be ‘openly’ targeted. (In other words,) the party behind the targeting will be known. Official statements will be issued saying: ‘we are the ones who bombarded you’. We are on the brink of a war. This is nothing short of that.

Even the Resistance (Axis) (as a whole) now considers itself fully concerned. I mean Iran is now in confrontation and is defending itself. This is true. However, there are accumulating scores (that haven’t been settled) and (this current period offers) the resistance forces a golden opportunity as Israel is preoccupied by the confrontation with Iran. On one hand, the resistance in Lebanon (Hezbollah) has reserved its right to respond to the Israeli operation in which one of its fighters fell as a martyr, and we remember the commitment of his eminence, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, where he confirmed that the response (for the attack) is coming. (On the other hand,) Syria has also accumulated scores from many Israeli raids (against it). Consequently, the entire region may go towards a confrontation in which occupied Palestine and the vital Israeli facilities will be the arena.

The US is now having discussions with the Israelis. It has one choice, i.e. to tell the Israelis: ‘we are responsible for protecting you, unless you initiate a war. We are now in negotiations, and we ask you to refrain from any escalation’. If the US wants to use its position to play both ends against the middle…

The host:

It is worth noting that Israel says that it informed the US about the attack against the Natanz (nuclear plant) and even the Iranian ship earlier.

Qandil:

That is true. we cannot imagine that Israel would dare to do what it did without the US not only having knowledge (of the situation), but also turning a blind eye to it in order to test how far Iran would go (to defend itself). If the Iranian position favors maintaining the negotiating climate and abandoning the military option, the US will encourage Israel to carry out more strikes, hoping that it will weaken Iran’s negotiating position.

(However,) the Iranian position today is clear and no longer needs analysis. It is based on the following rule: ‘we will respond (to the attacks) at all costs, and our response will be painful and harsh. Once again, the US is back to square one again. You want an agreement (with Iran)? There is a price to this agreement, and you have to pay it.

Special aDDENDUM
Is America under Biden using again the "war by proxy" approach inaugurated on Jimmy Carter's watch? The diabolical approach that gave the Soviets "their own Vietnam" while saddling the world with the Wahabi jihadist plague?

Watch this video with Caleb Maupin, arguing that the Biden admin, while seeming to retract US imperialism's overt military tentacles (i.e., Aghanistan troop withdrawal), and singing tunes of peace and diplomacy with Russia and China while also ratcheting sanctions, may be trying to spark conflagrations by proxy in multiple areas—Ukraine, South China Sea/Taiwan, Syria and Iran, Xinjiang, etc.—so as to inflict both hybrid and kinetic war defeats on Moscow and Beijing.  This type of strategic approach was originally recommended by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger, both Trilateral Commission advisors to what Caleb (correctly in our view) identifies as the "ultra rich/managerial/long term" wing of the US capitalist system (think big oil, big tech, Rockefeller money, Wall Street, CIA/deep state and Democratic party and legacy media assets), that is the "more effective evil", more sophisticated wing of global capitalism. This constellation of wealth and influence is in a protracted struggle with the "upstart" capitalists, those focused primarily on short-term  goals, profits at any cost, etc. Think here major weapons manufacturers (MIC), the fracking industry, new capitalist centers in the retail field (Home Depot, Amway), etc. These forces backed Trump, for example, and decades earlier gave rise to fierce opposition to FDR, whom they branded a class traitor and a commie. (The John Birch Society still argues that FDR, LBJ and Obama, among others, are communists, and that Lenin was put in power by a curious alliance of communist Western bankers (sic). Logic and history, let alone sober class analysis, apparently mean nothing to such people. ).  In this video Maupin also renews his critique of libertarianism and "the synthetic left", the two most dangerous ideological enemies of genuine leftism. 

—The Editor

Bonus:
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Steven G. Greene

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2011