Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 13 / Trend , E.Tariverdiyeva/ Trend interview with Rashad Rzaguliyev, President of the Azerbaijan Social Research Fund
Question: There are two views about the events in the Gaza Strip dominating in the Azerbaijani media. Major part of Azerbaijani experts and analysts directly condemn Israel of the bloodshed of innocent Palestinian civilians. On the other hand, there are comments emphasizing that Israel was forced to launch the war. What is your appraisal to the issue?
Answer: It is terrible and painful to watch the suffering of ordinary
civilians in Palestine and Israel - both have become the hostages in the bloodiest
ethno-political conflicts on the planet. It should be noted that the
predetermination of the conflict aggravation is dictated by a big geopolitical
game, in which the confessional antagonism is indirect and politically decorating.
As to the publications in the national media ... In my opinion, there are too many
emotions and political rhetoric on the pages of the national periodicals and
electronic resources, but there is little clear and thorough analysis of the
events.
The situation is briefly
determined by a single idea - Israel's offensive in Gaza is a dress rehearsal, a
demo of a large regional war, with the opposing sides being the U.S. and Iran.
Question: What factors stay behind this stage of
development of the conflict?
Answer: The basic problem is the contradictions between two rival political forces in Palestine - the Fatah party and the Hamas radical opposition. Without going into flashbacks of political struggle, I can only note that the relationship between the two leading political forces in Palestine led to armed clashes in June 2007, resulting in numerous casualties.
The Gaza Strip is Palestine's enclave completely ruled by pro-Iranian political party Hamas. It is more like Iran's military base quite near Israel who fires rockets on it frequently. It is absolutely clear that U.S.-Iran war will become possible once this enclave is destroyed.
In other words, Hamas war with Israel was predetermined in advance. Surprisingly enough, it was necessary for both sides. Only scenario of war and format of action of sides was still to be determined. I mention once again that military confrontations of geopolitical forces absolutely dissimilar to the conflicting sides stand behind this local war.
Question: What is the war scenario? What do you think of the prospects of Israeli assault on Gaza?
Answer: It is surprising that Israel loses in any case. Representatives of quite authoritative analytical centers insist on it.
Israel's tasks to provide its national security required to solve problem immediately as the country is going to hold series of elections. I am confident that Israeli government staked its all by gaining support of both outgoing and incoming White House Administration.
Israel resorted to mass bombing and committed action known as "crime against humanity" in today's civilized world as it understood very well that using "precise" strikes and format of "continuous" war as in Lebanese case will be ineffective and will be unequivocally announced Hamas' victory. As was expected, mass air strikes and numerous civilian deaths in Gaza led to Israel's condemnation by the entire Islamic world, UN, Europe, Turkey and Russia.
At best pro-Iranian-Hamas union of the Palestinian Autonomy will be established. At worst, a large regional war involving U.S. and Iran, will broke out.
Have any feedback? Contact our journalist at [email protected]
