Deniz ZENGİN, Ph.D.
Our guest in Davul Newspaper is a young journalist Asaad Hanna. I interviewed about Middle East policies and terrorist groups with Mr. Hanna. Also, he is sharing posts about Gaza nowadays. You can follow his Twitter account (@AsaadHannaa) for breaking news.
Enjoy your reading.
Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a Syrian ordinary person, who is on the side of the civilians, against the dictators, worked in the field of Journalism and the Humanitarian work, always wanted my country to be better, always thinking how we can save more lives, in 2020 I’ve started doing my Master’s in the International affairs and focusing on Conflict resolution in Columbia university in the city of New York. Besides helping some NGOs and companies doing better work in the MENA region.
How do you see the effect of Biden becoming the president of United States, for Middle East policies? Would that change the strategies of US in Middle East?
Biden’s administration is not a new administration, it’s a continued path of Obama’s one, and we see that clear from the people who were hired, most of them have served in a leadership positions in Obama’s administration. Therefore, we see the middle east going to confront the consequences of this administration as what happened before, like increasing the Iranian influence, instability in the MENA region
Last month, USA has deployed 24 more military troops to Syria. Before that, on 26th of February Biden has taken his first military action of an air-strike targeting of Iran-backed militias in Syria. On the other hand, Secretary of State has revocated the terrorist designations of Houthis. What is the main purpose and interests of US in Middle East?
Let me make it clear first, The US has no clear policy on Syria yet, they even still debating if they will assign a special envoy to Syria or keep it with the acting envoy, the military action on Syria was not because of what happening in Syria, it came after Iran targeted the American bases in Iraq multiple times, Biden didn’t want to look careless and wanted to take an action but at the same time he didn’t want to piss off Iran, and that’s why the attack didn’t happened in Iraq (where the Iranian real power is), so he attacked a small group in the middle of the Syrian desert.
Revoking the Houthis designation came as a courtesy to encourage Iran to reactivate the Nuclear deal, and that’s not good, because Houthis are not different from ISIS or Qaida, and they still killing civilians, attacking Saudi Arabia, and violating all the Human rights.
Syrian militants said to be planning an attack before the presidency elections in Syria. Do you expect democratic elections in Syria, and what kind of atmosphere awaits Syria?
The Syrian election is a joke, Hafez Al-Assad took power by a military coup, the Syrian election became just a show, always the “president” winning with 99%, this time nothing going to change, but maybe they will decide to drop the percentage a bit down to look normal.
How an election can be made while 90% of the Syrians inside Syria are under the poverty line, half million people were killed, 50% of the Syrian people fled the country, and thousands of people still in the prisons, in addition to five foreign armies are on the Syrian soil.
As numerous Iran-made weapons are found among Houthi militia forces, it is known that Tehran is providing Houthis with military support. Not only that, Iran has been supporting Houthis also in politics and technic. Hezbollah is said to be the role model for Houthis. What does the presence of terrorist organizations mean for Iran? What makes them important for Tehran?
IT is clear that Houthis are the Yemeni version of Hizbollah, local group taking their orders from Iran to disrupt the situation in Yemen in order to satisfy the Iranian intention of expanding their territory in the Arabic countries.
Saudi led-Arab coalition has slammed the Houthi militia for ’deliberately launching a ballistic missile to target civilians’ and saying that they are taking necessary operational measures to protect civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law. Despite these statements, there is no change in the situation of civilians. What do you think is the right and effective way to ensure the safety of civilians in Yemen?
War is war, always the civilians are the biggest loser their, The coalition should increase the measures of protecting the civilians in all possible ways, the biggest challenge is when you have a terrorist group like Houthis who doesn’t comply with any of the roles to avoid using the civilians areas or the civil infrastructure. (No justify for any attack on those areas as well)
Turkey has led three military operations in Syria and still maintains his military presence. How do you evaluate Turkey’s policy in Syria, taking account of the fact that it is a Muslim country?
The Turkish operations took place in order to reduce the Kurdish controlled areas on the Turkish southern borders, that’s why we saw no military operations toward Aleppo city, or Idlib, even when the Turkish military point were under attacks or besieged, they just withdraw it.
All Turkish operations were in coordinate with Russia who wanted to squeeze the American allies (PYD groups).
Turkey’s best role in Syria was when the US and Turkey working together, after 2016 the collaboration started to be more like a competition, and that wasted a lot of lives, time, lands and money for all parties.
