Mese: Novembre 2019

US ‘Terrorism’ Game Not Over by Baghdadi’s Death: Italian Author TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Italian author and geopolitical analyst highlighted the US attempts over the past decades to destabilize the Middle East by supporting terror groups and said Washington’s game of terrorism will not end by the killing of Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Of course, the game of ‘terrorism’ is still to be played out because the destabilization of the Middle East carried out over the last 30 years by the US administrations is profound,” Stefano Vernole, the head of External Relations at the Eurasia Mediterranean Study Center, told Tasnim in an interview. Vernole, a graduate in contemporary history and analysis of conflicts, ideologies, and politics in the contemporary world, has worked in the field of bibliographic cataloging and in the field of public administration. He is the head of external relations at the Eurasia Mediterranean Study Center and Deputy Director of “Eurasia”, a journal of geopolitical studies. He is the author of Ex-Yugoslavia: Dirty Game in the Balkans, National Fragmentation and Geopolitical Risk of Kosovo (2013), The Serbian Question and the Kosovo Crisis (2008), as well as co-author of The struggle for Kosovo (2007), Tibet Crossroads between Past and Future (2014), Discovering Tibet (2015), and Lo Xizang (Tibet) and the New Silk Road (2016). The following is the full text of the interview: Tasnim: US President Donald Trump recently declared that Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead after a US military raid in northwest Syria over the weekend. In reaction, the spokesman for Iran’s administration, Ali Rabiei, shrugged off the US president’s announcement and said Washington’s policies are the main reason for the emergence of Daesh, adding that the death of Baghdadi does not mean that Takfiri terrorism or “Daeshism” has ended. Do you think the killing of the Daesh leader would play a major role in the fight against terrorism in the region or bring an end to the phenomenon given its root causes? Vernole: The eventual killing of al-Baghdadi (Russia has raised some doubts about the real killing)certainly represents a symbolic blow in the fight against terrorism, but it certainly does not represent the end. US military action conducted in the Idlib area – an area under siege by Assad’s troops and Russian aviation – represents a concession to Putin’s pride in Trump. Let us not forget that the US president with his decision to withdraw a good part of the troops from Syria attracted criticism from the US establishment and needed a “coup de theater” to justify it. Of course, the game of “terrorism” is still to be played out because the destabilization of the Middle East carried out over the last 30 years by the US administrations is profound. Just think of what is happening in these hours in Lebanon and Iraq with the resignation of the two prime ministers. In particular, the Sunni component in the latter country had sought in Daesh a form of...