Iran will soon join Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the ranks of the defeated nations. The emerging Axis of Turkey, Syria and Russia will crush Iran, as predicted in Iranwatch.com in 2006. Turkey will direct this great anti-Iran alliance because of Iran’s continued hostility toward Turkey. For example, Iran refuses to endorse Turkeys anti-PKK efforts and has built a military and political coalition in Iraq between the PKK and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). In contrast Syrian President Bashar al-Assad quickly declared his support for Turkey’s anti-PKK actions.

This week President Assad made his first visit to Turkey. Assad’s meetings with Turkish PM Erdogan spell doom for Iran and for the Nazi administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Iran and Ahmadinejad are doomed because the new bonds between Turkey and Syria will combine with the traditional bonds between Russia and Syria to create for the Middle East a powerful anti-Iran, anti-Nazi alliance.

This Turkish-Syrian-Russian alliance will liberate Iraq from the Kurds/PKK and Iranians/Revolutionary Guards(IRGC). This Turkish-Syrian-Russian alliance will protect Syria itself from further Kurdish/PKK and Iranian/IRGC subversion by way of Iraq

Finally, this Turkish-Syrian-Russian alliance will protect Lebanon from Hezbollah excesses promoted by Iran. Ahmadinejad’s dream of controlling a land corridor from Iran to Hamas by way of Iraq and Syria will evaporate, thanks to Turkey and Russia.

In short, the Turkish-Syrian-Russian alliance will deprive Iran of all the strategic gains from the US-Iran partnership in Iraq. Despite US support, Iran will never become the superpower of the Middle East. Unfortunately, most US policy analysts see Iran as a big winner as opposed to a loser in the Middle East. STRATFOR provides a case in point. STRATFOR underestimates the potential for Syrian influence in Turkey and the Middle East and overestimates Iranian power. For example, STRATFOR says in its latest assessment that Syria needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Syria, implying that Syria can do little to protect Turkey’s equities in the region, aside from helping Turkey cope with the PKK problem -- See “Geopolitical Diary: Emerging Turkish-Syrian Alliance?”, 18 October 07.

STRATFOR is wrong. Syria has great influence with Turkey because Syria can serve as a bridge between Turkey and Iraq’s Sunnis, as well as a Turkish bridge to Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraq’s anti-Iran Shia majority. Turkish and Syrian coordination of policy with Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites will strike a mortal blow at Iranian influence in Iraq. In this regard, Syria will make a significant contribution to Turkish national security, despite STRATFOR’s assertion to the contrary.

STRATFOR’s second mistake is to overstate the value of Turkey’s partnership with the US, a mistake that again pushes Syria to the margins of Turkish security planning. STRATFOR contends the Turkish-US relationship is one of Strategic Partnership, and that Turkish-US relations will soon rebound from today’s low point.

Again, STRATFOR is wrong. In fact, the US is at war with Turkey and has been at war with Turkey since the early 1980’s, when the new Bush administration selected Iran and the Kurds over Turkey as the US’s strategic partners in the Middle East. As a result of Bush’s preference for Kurds and Iranians, relations between Turkey and the US are heading for collapse, not a rebound as asserted by STRATFOR.

In summary, the news of a Turkish-Syrian-Russian strategic partnership in the Middle East directed against Kurds and Iranians is good. The Arab states will quickly join, as will France, given Sarkozy’s concerns about rising Iranian influence and aggression in Lebanon. The door is now open for US participation, a step that would assure certain defeat and downfall for Ahmadinejad. Will President Bush join?