December 25, 2015
The United States has a plan to divide up Syria and Iraq into eight small countries in order to improve Israel’s security, according to Ali-Akbar Velayati, the chief foreign policy adviser to the Supreme Leader.
“The US is after implementing its plot to create a Greater Middle East by disintegrating Iraq into three countries and dividing Syria into five states in a bid to downsize countries in order to provide security to the Zionist regime,” Velayati said Saturday.
Velayati was Iran’s foreign minister for 16 years, from 1981 to 1997.
Looking over the Middle East, Velayati said, “What we are witnessing today, including the creation of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and of Daesh [the Islamic State], is aimed at confronting the Islamic Awakening and annihilating the chain of resistance.
“Today, Syria is the golden chain of resistance and the US, the Western states and their allies in the region are attempting to destroy this chain,” Velayati said.
His remarks came after General Vincent Stewart, the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, said in September that Iraq and Syria were unlikely to emerge intact from years of war and sectarian violence. Stewart said such disintegration was not US policy but was looking increasingly likely.
That same month, CIA Director John Brennan said the borders of the many Middle-Eastern countries are breaking down.
“I think the Middle East is going to be seeing change over the coming decade or two that is going to make it look unlike it did,” said Brennan, remarking that Iraqis and Syrians now identify themselves more by their tribe or religious sect, than by nationality.
