From left: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to a trilateral meeting on Syria in Ankara on Monday. Photo: AFP
David P. Goldman and Uwe Parpart, Asia Times: Ankara summit might have motivated Iran’s drone attack
Strike on Saudi oil facilities could have been a power play by Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps
After bilateral talks between Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan and Erdogan and Iranian President Rouhani in Ankara in the course of the day, the three presidents met on Monday night for the fifth summit under the Astana Process to discuss joint steps toward a political solution to the nine-year turmoil in Syria.
Given the frantic actionism and theatrical threats following the Saturday attacks on Saudi oil facilities that go for US diplomatic activity and military planning these days, Syria will not have been the only item on the three leaders’ agenda.
Indeed, Russian and Turkish pressure on Iran’s President Rouhani to withdraw Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps forces from Syria might have motivated Saturday’s drone and/or cruise missile attack on Saudi oil production plants, strategic analysts in several countries believe. The IRGC may have instigated the attacks to preempt a deal that would have reduced its forces in Syria after a bloody multi-year campaign against Sunni rebels backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
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WNU Editor: It is hard not to believe that Iran was involved in Saturday's military strike on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure. The intelligence that needed to be gathered and the weapons that needed to be used .... it screams Iran in every way. In that case, the only group in Iran that is capable of conducting such an operation are the Revolutionary Guards. As to why would the Iranian Revolutionary Guards green light the operation .... I think the reasons are many. There is the geopolitical one (as described by the above post), but the growing unrest in Iran may have been another motivation for the IRGC to conduct this strike in order to divert Iranians away from focusing on their tough times. And if the news from the Middle East is any indication, I would say that it is working.
