Series - Return of the Two Lions
Part IV: Iran and Turkey: What Tips the Scale?
27 May 2024
In “The History of Islam,” Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi reported on the Battle of the Camel (36A.H. – 657 A.D.) between ‘Ali bin Abi Talib and ‘Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, supported by Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam and Talha bin ‘Ubaidullah: “‘Ali walked the night among the dead with [lighting] fire. He passed by the corpse of Muhammad bin Talha [bin ‘Ubaidullah] and he said: ‘O Hassan, Muhammad al-Sajjad,i by the Ka‘aba, his father caused him to die this way, and if it were not out of respect for his father he would not have gone out [to fight].’ Al Hassan said: ‘You would have availed without this’ ‘O Hassan, we have no bearing on each other.’”ii In the same vein, Iran could have eschewed calling on Turkey, the E.U., and the United States and asked for its military and technological resources for assistance in locating the aircraft Iranian President Ibrahim Ra’isi had boarded, which lost contact on Sunday, May 19, 2024, during a return flight from the opening of the Qiz Qalasi hydroelectrical dam built along the Aras river, on the Iran-Azerbaidjan border.
Part III: The Third Iranian Expansion into the Middle East
24 April 2024
In April 2019, the Russian newspaper “Gazeta Ru” reported that Israel carried out a violent airstrike in which it bombed the Scientific Studies Research Center (SSRC) in the city of Masyaf in the Syrian Governorate of Hama. The attack used the supersonic Rampage missile, produced by Israel Military Industries in 2018 for use with F-16 and F-35 aircraft. It reaches speeds of Mach 9 and a range of 150 km. It destroyed the Russian Pantsir air defense missile system deployed to defend the center from air attacks. Israeli website “Debka” reported at the time that North Korean experts specializing in solid fuel production were killed, along with a number of Belarusian experts specializing in installing electronics on missiles at the center.i
Part II: Turkey’s Persisting Strategy
11 March 2024
Al-Mughira ibn Shu’ba said to Ali ibn Abi Talib before the Great Fitna: “Today’s decisions determine what will happen tomorrow, and today’s losses are the losses of what is to come.”
For the last half-century, Turkey’s strategy to rise regionally has been intrinsically linked to a purposeful frenzy by Turkish media supporting Recep Erdogan and his ruling party, met with indifference on the part of Turkey’s immediate and farther away vicinities.
It is an enduring tradition that whenever a political occurrence rises and moves in the political sphere, be it a state, a nation, or a political party, it will inevitably spread disturbances and fragmentation in its surroundings.
Part I: Geostrategic Restructuring
12 July 2023
Before the advent of Islam, Arabs called the Persian and the Byzantine Empires the Two Lions because they subjugated the peoples and nations of the Middle East and dominated the geopolitical sphere of Iraq, Syria, the Levant, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, and the Mediterranean. Each had exclusive influence and authority over this geopolitical area. Xerxes of Persia appointed governors over provinces, isolated them, and employed others. He deployed military garrisons called masaleh with commanders from the Persian army. He appointed governors over al-Hirah in Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, al-Yamamah, and Oman. Similarly, the Romans had the Levant, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Basin under their exclusive sphere of influence.
