By Wesam Bahrani
For more than a decade, Syria has faced the most savage forms of mercenary terrorism backed by a coalition of Western and Arab countries.
The West Asian country surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Palestine and Lebanon to the southwest, has a massive strategic significance.
The country also faced the first-ever successful social media propaganda campaign that fuelled the war years ago in a bid to impose a much wider and more sinister agenda with destructive goals.
These included attempts to divide the two largest sects of Islam, the Shia and Sunnis, inflict damage to the Axis of Resistance and, in particular, tarnish the image of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.
When the 2011 Arab Spring kicked off in the region, it quickly turned into a terrorist Autumn, with the legitimate concerns of the people brushed under the carpet.
This was the same period that then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expelled US troops from Iraq.
No boots on the ground were to the benefit of the US as they were returning in coffins.
However, no military bases in the region were a concern for US hegemony, especially when one puppet regime was being toppled after the other. And who was set to come to power had the Arab Spring gone as planned? Leaders with hatred of America, its Zionist proxy, and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
This is why the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, stated that it was an Islamic Awakening, not an Arab Spring.
The US tapped into extremist Takfiri elements that deviated from Islam and terrorized the Arab Spring with Takfiri boots on the ground.
NATO-sponsored military coups also wreaked havoc in many countries, taking away people’s dreams, but Syria was always the prime target. The Arab country is the beating heart of the resistance axis.
Representatives of Takfiri terrorists, quite remarkably spared from prison in the West, were provided with platforms to speak on Western mainstream media at prime time to brainwash as many youths as possible. Basically a recruiting scheme.
This is while social media footage of peaceful protests in the Syrian cities of Daraa and Homs appeared to show protesters being shot at.
Yet, many eyebrows were raised. Why were security forces firing at protesters who had every right to demonstrate peacefully if they had domestic grievances?
Those who have been to Syria before the war, including former British Ambassador to the country, Peter Ford, witnessed first-hand examples of how a society with so many different ethnic and religious groups can co-exist in complete peace and harmony.
What really happened in Daraa and Homs was a massively funded campaign by Persian Gulf kingdoms (who were watching on with horror at the prospect of being dethroned themselves) to manipulate social media videos and make them appear as if Syrian security forces were shooting and killing protesters.
Except they weren’t. This was documented shortly afterward by some of the most prominent activists and later by investigative journalists as well.
Yet, the damage had been done. Tens of thousands of Takfiri terrorists, if not hundreds, from around the world, had already crossed into Syria via Turkey, a NATO member, to fight the Syrian Arab Army.
The CIA started its training, arming, and funding program for these terrorists in neighboring Jordan, the Zionist regime set up a field hospital in the occupied Golan to treat injured militants, and to this day, nobody has really answered how Daesh terrorists got their hands on the best US-made Toyotas?
The Syrian government and its people sacrificed a more comfortable and easy life because they stood with Palestine and the Palestinian cause.
As did Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many of its weapons were provided by Syria, an ally, to protect Lebanon and help Palestine.
Hezbollah entered the fight against Takfiri terrorists in Syria to avoid a civil war when a sacred shrine of Muslims, that of the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), Seyyeda Zeinab, which holds a special place in every Shia Muslim’s heart, came under attack on the outskirts of Damascus.
Hezbollah also sought to defeat the terror groups and restore peace and calm in the war-ravaged Arab country in the fight against the Zionist regime.
The fake social media propaganda against Hezbollah played a pivotal role in making the war on Syria appear like a global sectarian Shia-Sunni problem.
Whoever has any doubts lingering that these terrorists are not sponsored by the Zionists and its allies should assess recent events.
A ceasefire forced on the Zionist regime by Hezbollah over the past week coincided with the largest terror offensive on the Syrian city of Aleppo by Takfiri militants since 2017.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as al-Qaeda, with the only difference being the name change, were holed up in the northwestern city of Idlib near the Turkish border for years.
HTS leader Abu Muhammad Jolani, who has pledged allegiance to every terror leader alive and in living memory, was awarded a large convoy of fighters alongside advanced military equipment that crossed the Turkish border into Idlib last week.
The fabricated “Hezbollah crimes in Syria,” still widely circulating in Persian Gulf media, continue to serve as a tool to attack Hezbollah and the entire Axis of Resistance to this day.
After Hezbollah humiliated the Zionist Golani Brigade on the southern Lebanese border, forcing Netanyahu to a temporary truce so his army could take a “breather”, Jolani stepped in to compensate.
The aim is to wreak havoc in Syria again and prevent any military supplies from reaching Hezbollah. This was openly stated by Netanyahu.
But just as the US, Zionist, Persian Gulf, and Turkish plot to destabilize Syria was defeated before, the same will happen again.
This is not the same Syria as 2011. The Axis of Resistance that aided Syria before has gained a vast level of experience in dealing with these foreign terrorists.
The liberation of Aleppo from HTS-led groups in 2017 shifted the trajectory of the war in Syria through brave men, including Iranian military advisors, who saw the defeat of Daesh and other head-chopping groups.
The Iraqi resistance alone has put on notice 40,000 fighters to enter Syria if needed. It can double that number if HTS lingers around for too long.
Perhaps the most important element to comprehend how these Takfiri gangs operate for the Zionists and its allies is the fact they did not fire a single shot at the Israeli regime amid almost 14 months of genocide in Gaza. And never once did they do so in their history.
One side sacrificed its best leaders and its highest commanders for Palestine WHILE the other side is determined to kill Muslims in Syria and protect the Zionist regime.
Wesam Bahrani is an Iraqi journalist and commentator who specializes on the Axis of Resistance.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.
