Bogdanov: A Mission on Regional, International Scale

Mohamad Shamsedine

Al-Binaa, 29-04-2013

Meetings that the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held during his visit to Lebanon were not considered at all irrational or meaningless, since his ministry had prepared a complete file on the steps related to the crises in the Arab and Middle Eastern regions.

However, these meetings mainly revolved around the results the Syrian crisis reaped, following several steps executed in the battlefield there, in which the Syrian Army forces achieved noticeable progress on numerous strategic scales in the North, West, South, as well as Damascus and its countryside.

The first result of the Syrian crisis field-wise was that it sent a clear message to those concerned - particularly the US - that attacking Damascus will definitely change the game rules set since the beginning of the crisis. Western command rooms strongly adopted this proposal (attacking Damascus) since it would be a conclusive step that destabilizes the Syrian regime's pillars in one blow when plots of striking the regime through third-parties failed.

Moreover, Russia had sent messages of this sort to Syrian opposition funders and their groups in Syria, yet "Israel" directly supported the Western-Arab alliance, especially during the past three months when Jordan had become the US's main command room on operating the war on Syria.

This ‘alliance' continued to prepare for the conclusive and final attack on the capital, but an opposed movement outstripped the Americans, because the al-Qseir attack and surrounding militiamen in al-Qseir city also reaped dependable results in determining public political stances in this context through qualitative operations in Damascus's Southern and Northern countryside.

The latest Syrian movement was merely a true manifestation of what the countries of this axis announced; refusing silence on the war in Syria, because its aims exceeded theoretical reforms that were immediately rejected when the so-called opposition denied Syrian President Bashar Assad's proposals for reform.
On this note, Saudi Arabia's ‘beat around the bush' like in Lebanon, does not work anymore. Every time matters would reach a conclusive stage, it would beat around the bush by easing tension and remolding matters in a settling tone, aiming only at cutting losses and preventing the winner to receive his winnings.
This happened over several years, such as the "Israeli" war on Lebanon back in 2006, then on May 7, 2008 when Doha played a mediator's role instead of Riyadh.
Riyadh had lost its powers ever since its failure to fixate the Lebanese "heir" Saad Hariri in implementing his political plots in Lebanon and the region.

Russia had placed matters in an international political mold, firstly because it considers itself a part of this regional axis that Tehran, Damascus, and their allies sponsor; secondly because it admits the righteousness of this direction; and thirdly because it needs to lead this axis in this Eastern-Western conflict.
Furthermore, Bogdanov started his visit from Tehran, where he stayed only one night. The mission he was up against was already agreed upon with Iranians, including the meeting with Hizbullah's Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who visited Tehran recently.

Hizbullah's operations in al-Qseir commenced after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's visit. The Iranian and Russian parties had admitted that the axis of movement must be Lebanon because of its strategic power and location regarding any plot they would execute in the region and the Syrian crisis.

The Syrian crisis, they regard, is the main point of upcoming change in the region, especially in light of the geographic redrawing occurring, that could result in dangerous changes, where some countries could be annihilated.
Therefore, Bogdanov's mission conveyed these messages, not less. Lebanon is considered the grand portal to any change in Syria, and the latter is considered the bigger portal of change in the region and perhaps the world following the Russian and Chinese stances regarding the international crises. Consequently, "the new administration's" series of meetings opened up to parties and showed readiness for cooperation under new game rules; it will not allow small components to be a tool for grand schemes that countries benefit from.

Bogdanov performed his mission from a plot drawn among the axis's decision-makers, following the execution of the first field phase in Syria. Before executing other phases, anticipated change must occur in upcoming international stances, perhaps before US President Barack Obama's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Source: al-Binaa daily, translated and edited by moqawama.org