Alireza Tivasolii, A Qom seminary graduate and commander of the Fatemiyoun Brigade killed in Syria, with Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force (File)
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s clerical establishment has used religious organizations to expand its clout abroad.
Key among them is the Al-Mustafa International University, a network of religious seminaries based in the Shi’ite holy city of Qom that has branches in some 50 countries.
The university claims to teach Shi’ite Muslim theology, Islamic science, and Iran’s national language, Persian, to tens of thousands of foreign students across Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America.
Hudhaifa Ebrahim 12/23/2020
The incidents come amid reports that a reconciliation agreement between Qatar and four Arab states will be forthcoming at January GCC summit
A full reconciliation between Qatar and four Arab states over a three-year-old crisis may take a little more time due to maritime incidents with Bahrain.
In recent weeks, there have been reports in news outlets in the Arab Gulf that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain would reach a final agreement over the dispute during a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that was to have been held in Bahrain in late December, but that has been moved to Riyadh and postponed until January 5.
In a
statement on December 9, the university said it promoted peace, friendship, and brotherhood among nations and slammed the U.S. decision as hegemonic. High-Value Individuals
Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington who has closely monitored IRGC activity in Syria, said that, according to his database from January 2012 to December 2020, 3,059 Iranian and allied foreign fighters were killed in combat in Syria.
Alfoneh says of those, only three were students or graduates of the Al-Mustafa International University known as Jamiat al-Mostafa University in Iran. This indicates that Jamiat al-Mostafa has never served as the primary recruitment ground for the IRGC s war effort in Syria, he says.
During his visit to Moscow this week, Syria’s new Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, that Mr Al Assad wants to speed up the process of stabilising Syria following nine years of conflict. At the moment, it seems impossible for the regime and its backers to reach a deal with Turkey over the fate of Idlib, a region in Syria’s north-west that is controlled by rebels mostly backed by Ankara – and Moscow and Damascus seem to be acknowledging this fact. This, then, leaves the Astana Process in tatters, thereby paving the way for new ideas – such as the one proposed in Moscow.
December 19, 2020 Share
A decade ago, Arab Spring revolutions shook Middle East regimes, toppling a number of long-standing leaders once considered impervious to change. But analysts say the movement failed to attain popular aspirations for greater political influence. Now, 10 years later, no new political order has emerged.
Massive Arab Spring protests swept away rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen 10 years ago.
And in some nations like Syria, bloody civil wars have ensued, drawing in foreign powers.
Jordan’s former Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher says a decade after the Arab Spring, there is still little good governance in the Arab world, as leaders fail to address popular demands for greater rights and rule of law.