May 28, 2017 9 News & Analysis Syria US risks further clashes as Syrian boot print broadens Simon Speakman Cordall Tunis ondemnation, criticism and, inevitably, escalation have quickly followed a US air strike against an appar- ently Iranian-backed mili- Ctia convoy near Syria’s border with Jordan and Iraq. The clash has, at least, provided analysts with some indication of American aspirations in Syria and, as the United States increases its military commitment in the area, some indication of the risks it runs of banging heads with other interna- tional actors active on Syria’s battle- scarred ground. Fars reported, “thousands of Hezbollah troops were sent to al-Tanf passageway at Iraq- Syria bordering areas.” US commanders said the convoy of Iranian-supported militia ignored numerous calls for it to halt as it Not without risks. A US-backed Syrian fighter stands on a vehicle with heavy automatic machine gun (L) next to an American soldier moved towards coalition positions who stands on an armoured vehicle at the Syrian-Iraqi crossing border point of al-Tanf. (AP) at al-Tanf, justifying the strike that destroyed a number of vehicles and killed several militiamen. agency, referred to a British, Jorda- is the military is much more likely tion to the “several hundred” special the US decision to directly arm the However, for Iran and its allies in nian and US plot to create a buffer to improvise and this decision to hit operations troops present near ISIS’s Kurds and to conduct the air strike Moscow and Damascus, the strike zone in the area, like that at the Go- the regime may have been taken at de facto capital of Raqqa, gathering against Hezbollah forces threatening marked an aerial “aggression” by lan Heights and leading ultimately to the lower levels. In fact, I believe it ahead of the much-anticipated at- America’s Arab armed opposition the US-led coalition and provided the potential invasion of Syria under was.” tack against the city. partners near al-Tanf, is the Trump evidence of the West’s neo-colonial the pretext of a war against ISIS. While the reasons to call the strike Analysts cautioned against con- administration sending the strong ambitions within Syria. In response, Fars reported, “thou- on the advancing column appear to flating the hostility in al-Tanf with signal that the United States will do News of the militia’s encroach- sands of Hezbollah troops were sent be in keeping with US military objec- US support for the Kurdish-led Syr- what must be done to beat ISIS, on ment on the coalition forces training to al-Tanf passageway at Iraq-Syria tives on the ground, the diplomatic ian Democratic Forces (SDF) in American terms.” base at al-Tanf was not new. Four bordering areas to prepare the Syr- fallout has been far-reaching. The Raqqa. “I would treat separately the US support for its partners in Syria days prior to the strike, Britain’s Dai- ian army and its allies for thwarting day after the strike, Russian Deputy matter of arming the Kurds directly,” appears to be unequivocal. “The ly Telegraph ran a report confirming the US plots.” Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov Itani said. “I think this move is fully Trump administration has decided that pro-regime troops were within Despite the stakes involved, the slammed the action as “totally unac- in line with their pre-existing strat- to double down on expanding the about 24km of the British- and US- decision to fire on the Iranian militia ceptable” and a “violation of Syrian egy of fighting ISIS through the SDF.” US role in Syria and that will mean operated training hub. looks to have been a local one. “The sovereignty.” Irrespective of where responsibil- an American military investment on As Western military visibility in war in Syria is much less microman- However, as US numbers and Ira- ity for the clash at al-Tanf may lie, the ground inside of Syria for years Syria grows, so, too, does the suspi- aged from the White House than it nian suspicions in Syria increase, so, the US presence in Syria looks to to come,” Heras said. cion that it provokes. On the same used to be, and there is a weak in- too, does the likelihood of confron- continue to grow in assertiveness. day as the air strike, while mak- teragency process as is,” said Faysal tations. In March, the Washington Nicholas Heras, a fellow at the Cen- Simon Speakman Cordall is ing no mention of the attack itself, Itani, resident senior fellow at the Post reported the deployment of a tre for a New American Security, a section editor with The Arab the semi-official Iranian Fars news Atlantic Council. “What this means task force of regular forces in addi- said: “What we are seeing now, with Weekly. Erdogan’s Ottoman visions in Syria Viewpoint alestinian President presidential, coming straight out of with more attention by the and had to be buried in Damascus Mahmoud Abbas could the Ottoman past. Ottoman government than its size Had since returning to Turkey was hardly hold back his He has often lamented his might have warranted. It was the prohibited by the Kemalists. astonishment when country’s borders, imposed after most culturally advanced and Erdogan’s The mosque was built by Sultan visiting Turkey in 2015 the Ottoman Empire’s defeat at historically important Arab city in regime- Selim II, with arcaded cells now at the dramatic recep- the end of the first world war, and the Ottoman state, where Islam change used to sell Damascene crafts and Ption in his honour at the presiden- worked hard at challenging them. created its first empire under the memorabilia. The Turks tried — policy tial palace, a 1,150-room mansion At its apex, the Ottoman Umayyad dynasty in 661. and failed — to buy or rent out the constructed in Ottoman spirit and Empire included parts of Eastern The Umayyads had a modern worked, he place prior to 2011. splendour, with all its iconogra- Europe, the Balkans, Crimea and navy, a police force, their own would have Had Erdogan’s regime-change Sami phy and calligraphy, at a cost of no the Caucasus, bestriding three currency and exported the Muslim loved to policy worked, he would have Moubayed less than $500 million. continents with a population faith to Europe and China. The loved to march into Damascus Decorating the royal staircase of approximately 25 million. As Umayyads built the Umayyad march into to reclaim these highly symbolic were 16 spear-carrying warriors in the empire eroded, it lost Serbia, Mosque, one of the oldest Damascus graves. golden helmets, standing around Montenegro, Romania, Bosnia, existing mosque in the world, to reclaim In February 2015, he had ordered their megalomaniac president, or Herzegovina, Cyprus and Egypt. and many of the Prophet’s wives the highly his troops to march into the Syrian “Sultan,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a The collapse of order in Syria and companions are buried at a north to dig up the remains of man famed for his obsession with in 2011 gave Erdogan a golden cemetery south-west of the Grand symbolic Suleiman Shah, the grandfather of his country’s Ottoman past. opportunity to achieve his Umayyad, which Erdogan visited graves. Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Months earlier, Erdogan had ambition, especially in a lost often before 2011. Dynasty. According to Ottoman toyed with the idea of reinstituting symbolic city such as Damascus, On the south-western side of legend, he drowned in 1236 near his Ottoman Turkish at state-run which the Ottomans once called the Takiyeh Sulaimaniya complex burial site and had been interred at schools and once said that, by “Sham Sherif” — “Damascus the in central Damascus, facing the Qalaat Jabar in Raqqa governorate 2030, his country would reach Noble.” present Four Seasons Hotel, lies a only to be moved 85km north in the influence and power of the The last powerful sultan — Abdul famous mosque with the graves 1973, due to potential floods at the Ottoman Empire during its heyday. Hamid II, a long-time inspiration of seven children of Abdul Hamid original location. The tombstone An ambitious project, no doubt, of the Turkish president — had a II. Also buried at the site are two was built at Abdul Hamid II’s but Erdogan has gone by the book particularly soft spot for Damascus. children of Sultan Abdulmejid I, orders, explaining Erdogan’s in trying to achieve that ambition, Ten years ago, at Erdogan’s request, and three of Sultan Murad V, in additional interest in the matter. turning a deaf ear to all criticism. a mega-production was filmed in addition to a number of relatives, According to the 1923 Treaty He has taken giant steps, ranging Egypt, starring front-line Syrian bringing the number of Ottoman of Lausanne, his grave is in 100% from military adventures in Syria actors, about the life of Abdul figures to a total of 18. Turkish territory, part of an official and Iran to symbolic ones such Hamid II. The last person buried at this and internationally recognised as ordering the Turkish national Unlike Erdogan, who was a cemetery was Bader el-Din Effendi, enclave within Syria, where visitors anthem to be played on modified frequent guest of Damascus the youngest son of Abdul Hamid had to provide passports to enter. It drums and brass instruments, before the outbreak of the present II and who died in 1980. The 36th was guarded by 40 Turkish soldiers making it sound royal rather than conflict, Abdul Hamid had never and last Ottoman sultan, Mehmet until the operation was carried out visited Damascus but relied heavily VI, was buried there in 1926, after in 2015, ostensibly to save it from on an assortment of Damascene dying in exile in Italy four years the clutches of the Islamic State.