World Sympathizes as Paris Mourns Terror Attacks

Majid Tafreshi

Iran-UK Affairs Analyst

The bloody and disastrous incidents of the black Friday on November 13, 2015, in Paris, once more underlined the need for profound and extensive rethinking and review of such concepts as global peace and international terrorism on the part of the West.

During at least the past 35 years and following the military occupation of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union up to the present time, the United States and its European allies have gradually focused on two important issues, especially after the end of the Cold War. The first issue is purposive use of armed terrorist groups as well as regional and international terrorism for the achievement of their goals and protection of their interests, with the second issue being division of terrorist groups into good and bad terrorists.

For many years, the governments of the United States and European countries have supported such illegal armed groups in order to fight other groups. The general understanding at first was that the scope of the activities of terrorist groups can be controlled and kept limited, thus preventing their infiltration into the Western countries. However, the past experience during the last 35 years has shown that such a limitation cannot be actually imposed for a host of material, theoretical, social and political reasons and that the Western countries cannot remain immune to the vicious acts of the monster they have created, or at least, strengthened with their own hands. Of course, a number of supporters and members of radical Salafi, Wahhabi and Takfiri terrorist groups enjoy material and theoretical support of some Arab countries. However, the failure of Western countries to implement a convergent policy for the assimilation of non-European immigrants in the host societies, and disillusionment of those immigrants about the possibility of leading a successful life in the United States and Europe must not be ignored as a factor. The more inefficient is the policy to bring Western countries together on this issue, the higher has been the possibility of the activities of radical Salafist terrorist groups, such as Daesh, spreading into those countries.

Under these conditions, fighting this ominous phenomenon as well as its security and social consequences would not be possible by mere reliance on covert and over security agencies without due attention to root causes of the spread of Daesh and Daesh-like ideas in the West, and the willingness of disillusioned, uneducated, and isolated non-European and Asian-American youths for joining such terrorist groups. Another point that must be mentioned here is that for many years, no serious and practical negative reaction was shown by the United States and European countries to terrorist incidents in various regions of the world as long as long as those incidents were not directly related to these countries. This policy was followed from Iran to Iraq and Afghanistan all the way to North Africa and other parts of the world. A prominent and recent example of this policy that is still followed by the United States and Europe was the latest terrorist bomb attacks in the Lebanese and Iraqi capital cities of Beirut and Baghdad, respectively. Despite similarities between the root causes and agents behind these terror attacks and the bloody incidents of last Friday in Paris, none of these two incidents were condemned, either politically or diplomatically by Western countries.

It must be noted that the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States and their global aftermath, especially military occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, caused Salafi and Wahhabi terror cells not to remain limited to al-Qaeda and under the leadership of Osama bin Laden and his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Subsequently, due to later rifts that emerged among these groups, they were divided into hundreds of local and regional cells, sometimes even with independent and separate commands across the world, as a result of which bringing them under supervision and control became much more difficult and complicated compared to previous years. The rise and official expansion of Daesh and the local allies of this terrorist group was exactly the result of such process.

About 15 years ago, Jack Straw, the then British foreign secretary, reacted to reports about cooperation between London and Tehran for fighting transit of narcotics from Afghanistan to Europe through Iran by saying that if Britain aimed to fight widespread and inexpensive distribution of illicit drugs on the streets of London, it had no choice, but to work with Iran to prevent smuggling of such drugs out of Afghanistan. The same logic now holds water more than any time before about fighting the spared of terrorism to the West.

The United States and Europe cannot lend their support to terrorist groups that are opposed to countries which are not allies of the United States and Europe, on the one hand, while on the other hand, hoping that the scope of their terrorist activities will not expand to include the West. The bloody incidents in Paris once again proved that the time for dividing terrorists into good and bad is long past. Iran's president Hassan Rouhani addressed a group of Western thinkers and officials of American think tanks in New York about one and a half months ago saying that giving priority to the policy that calls for regime change in Syria and ignoring the risks posed by radical terrorist groups in the Middle East is an incorrect and inefficient policy. He added that as long as the first priority of the West is not fighting all forms of terrorism, the policy of insisting on regime change in the Middle East will not only get nowhere, but also add fuel to the ongoing crises and cause them to spread onto the streets of Europe and the United States. The disastrous and bloody incidents of Paris have put the rubberstamp on Rouhani’s remarks. You simply cannot foster terrorism in one corner of the world or avoid taking any step against inhuman activities of terrorist groups in the Middle East and other Third World countries, while at the same time, expecting their activities not to spill over onto the streets of Western countries and believing that Western societies will remain immune to their negative consequences.

Key Words: France, Paris, Terror Attacks, Daesh, International Terrorism, The United States, Europe, Infiltration, Radical Terrorist Groups, Non-European Immigrants, Disillusionment, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, 9/11 Terror Attacks, Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Western Countries, Consequences, Tafreshi

Source: Etemad Newspaper

http://etemadnewspaper.ir/
Translated By: Iran Review.Org

More By Majid Tafreshi:

* Iran, An Important Key for British Locks: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Iran-An-Important-Key-for-British-Locks.htm

*From Britain’s Efforts for Hong Kongization of the Iranian Islands to Saddam Army’s Communiqués: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/From_Britain%E2%80%99s_Efforts_for_Hong_Kongization_of_the_Iranian_Islands_to_Saddam_Army%E2%80%99s_Communiqu%C3%A9s.htm

*Cutting UK Ties Is a Mistake:

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Cutting_UK_Ties_Is_a_Mistake_2.htm

*Photo Credit: The National, Infinite Unknown