US seeks to sow division in Mideast: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Navid Nasr, a radio host and political commentator in Zagreb, to discuss the remarks made by Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah who blamed the United States for all the current conflicts in the Middle East.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Nasrallah called Daesh a US Takfiri project. How much do you agree with his remarks?

Nasr: I agree a hundred percent with his remarks. There is no denying that from the very foundation, the very beginning of this organization in Iraq - 12, 13 years ago with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - its entire project was to sow division, hatred, distrust and bloodshed in the region amongst the people of the region, starting out in Iraq but now as we have seen it has branched out into Syria certainly but also Lebanon, also Yemen and Egypt, Libya and it is doing the same thing wherever it goes.

Its first target, its primary target is always the other people of the region however they are defined, however they are put into that other category and there is no denying that this is a classic strategy used by colonial powers - as long as there have been colonial powers - to fuel mutual mistrust, hatred and animosity in whatever region they have grand designs on.   

Press TV: We saw that Hezbollah chief praising Muslims in general and specifically Sunnis for standing against this project, against Daesh and thwarting the plot to actually create sectarian violence in the region. How significant do you think the role of Sunnis has been?  

Nasr: Quite significant, if for example all you have to do is look at the Syrian Arab army itself or just in general Syria itself. If Syria had broken down completely along sectarian lines, if the majority, not even the vast majority, but let’s say 55 percent, 60 percent of Syrian Sunnis sided with Daesh or Jabhat al-Nusra or Ahrar al-Sham or any of these other groups, there is no denying that the “revolution” would have long since succeeded in toppling the Assad government and taking Damascus, long since have succeeded.

So that has not happened. It also did not happen in Iraq. Initially there were significant portions of the population of Mosul that sheered the Daesh takeover but that quickly dissipated and not just in Mosul but in Fallujah, in Ramadi we have seen masses of people, indigenous local people take up arms against Daesh. So there is no denying that without that, Daesh would have been far more successful even than it has been in both of those countries at the very least.   

Press TV: Well Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah also warned Israel and others including the Takfiris that the resistance will choose war over humiliation. What do you think about that? What do you think about the timing of his speech and its significance and whether we will actually see a war?

Nasr: I am not exactly sure about what kind of war Seyyed Nasrallah is envisioning in that particular quote. Frankly there already is regional war when you look at it against stretching from Lebanon to Iraq, east to west, all the way down to Yemen, extending into Egypt and Libya. Possibly he is talking about something expanding into Lebanon - God forbid that that happens at this point - but other than that we are already talking about a region in flames here. The key is who is going to emerge victorious, that the war is already there.  

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