Ghadanfar Roken Abadi is the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon. He lives in the Lebanese capital Beirut, and had graduated from one of its universities. Ghadanfar in Arabic means “lion.” Most probably, Abadi is one of the biggest supporters of Assad regime.
He drew the media’s attention when he invited the ambassadors of Syria, Russia and China to his house, stating that the dinner was aimed to “discuss the political future of Syria” expressing his outrage at the meeting from light weapons smuggling from Lebanon to Syrian rebels. Apparently, the quartet meeting in Beirut was the substitute of a meeting that was intended to take place in Damascus because the rebel forces attacked the city and the road from Lebanon to Damascus became unsafe.
The Lebanese media has considered that this meeting is against the rules of diplomatic hospitality, but this is not true as long as it is just a dinner that does not include any project without the knowledge of the Lebanese authorities. I do not want to discuss the norms, and I do not care about the opinion of the ambassador Ghadanfar Abadi regarding the weapons smuggling by the Lebanese in favor of the Syrian rebels. Abadi himself does not care about the Lebanese people’s opinion and their rejection of the huge weapons arsenal that the Iranian government is smuggling into Lebanon to support Hezbollah against the rest of the country.
The four ambassadors represent more than four despised governments by the Arabs today. The longer the Syrian crisis remains and the longer Bashar al-Assad will rule Damascus, the greater the problem of Russia, China and Iran will evolve in the region, and not vice versa. If the stories stating that Iran plans to send 70 thousand fighters to support the collapsing regime in Syria, alleging that the Iranian intervention is in response to the Turkish support with weapons and western Patriot missiles, were true, it will lead to an occupation and the Iranians will sink in a Syrian swamp; this may also lead to the fall of the Iranian regime itself, since it is facing an internal anger similar to what is happening in Syria.
Iranian Army Chief-of-Staff Major-General Hassan Fairouz Abadi said, in reference to Turkey’s use of Western defenses: “The West is planning now for another world war that will also pose a threat to Europe itself.” I did not understand his insistence on the – defensive – dangerous Patriot missiles, when he threatened Turkey saying that these missiles will increase the tension. He urged Turkey and the United Stated to withdraw before “the fire breaks out, when no one will be able to extinguish it.”
He should know that the real fire will flare up if Iran sends its troops to fight in Syria, even if they narrow their mission to the Alawite coastal region. It will find, in a very short period of time, tens of thousands who are ready to fight against the Iranian troops in Syria: some will fight against them on a sectarian basis, and others because they believe that the Syrian people’s support has become obligatory after the failure of Arab governments and the betrayal of the international community. This means that Iran will step into hell and will be in an unprecedented hostile environment.
Without Iranian intervention, Bashar al-Assad will only remain in power for a few more weeks.
(Abdul Rahman al-Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya. The article was published in Asharq Alawsat on Dec. 17, 2012)
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