Five days before the Persian spring festival of Noruz, the US-UK coalition launched an unprovoked bombing attack on Yemen, targeting resistance sites in Sa'ada and Taiz, Hodeidah port and the capital Sana'a. Although the date of this attack - the Ides of March - already suggested some significant advance planning, this was confirmed by the 'leaking' of details of the planning meetings in the days before the strikes. While the leaker has been condemned and badmouthed for revealing confidential discussions, little attention has been paid to their subject, or to the background of Atlantic editor and journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. He was surely considered a safe pair of hands, as an Ashkenazi Jew and Zionist and reliable anti-Iran propagandist for Israeli media. Dates around the Spring Equinox seem to have an attraction for military campaign planners. 22 years ago, on 20.03.2003, the previous 'coalition of the willing' launched "Shock and Awe" on Baghdad, while on the Ides of March in 2015, a joint army of Saudi and Turkish backed Islamist militants launched a campaign into NW Syria as Jaish al Fatah - the Army of Conquest, first setting up their base in Idlib and then advancing rapidly southwards into areas now again under siege from Damascus. Of more immediate interest however is that this date marks 10 years since the launching of the Saudi-US-Israeli war on the Yemeni resistance. That of course was not how it was portrayed at the time - which was as an intervention to save the Yemeni people from the "Iran-backed Houthi rebels". In fact it was ten years ago today, and following the failure of 'peace talks' mediated by UN special advisor to Yemen Jamal Benomar, that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubair called on the US for support against Iran: In a rare press conference, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, told reporters that a 10-country coalition had joined the military campaign in a bid “to protect and defend the legitimate government” of Yemen’s president, Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. He declined to give any information on Hadi’s whereabouts. In fact Hadi was not 'legitimate' in any way, having resisted a popular uprising after the 'Arab Spring' and not facing elections of any kind, before being forced to flee Sana'a, first to UK-controlled Aden and then to Riyadh, where he remained for some years as the leader of "Yemen's internationally recognised government". Following Hadi's exile, former President Abdullah Saleh formed a coalition with the current government of Ansarullah to fight the Saudi offensive, which met with much anger and aggression from Riyadh. In October 2016, the Saudis bombed a funeral, knowing it would be attended by many prominent members of Ansarullah, as I described here at the time. I also described the failure of SBS to properly report what happened - as they continue to do today! Saleh himself was victim of assassination attempts but continued to play a part in the Sana'a government, until he was revealed as engaged in a coup plot to see his pro-Western and pro-Israel son installed as President, with military help from the UAE. This coup and the covert killing of Saleh would have remained barely known were it not for Lebanese journalist and 'Resistance fighter' Marwa Osman and her Iranian contacts. These events have such resonance with current developments that they are necessary background if we want to understand the reality of the escalating war on the Yemeni resistance, and its Iranian axis. Which is where Noruz comes in, and to explain how Western media aim to portray the coming war on Iran, the SBS world news report from March 21st is a good start.
There are a number of points to make about this report which I will detail below, but noting the initial and most seriously misleading introduction first. SBS framed the celebrations of Kurds in the far North East of Syria - Qamishli - and the North West - Afrin - as a festival banned by the now-expelled Syrian government. While some of those interviewed and taking part in the Zoroastrian fire ceremonies claim they were unable to do so until the 'fall of the regime' - they are clearly subject to the pervasive disinformation from local and international media, with no-one remaining to challenge it.
As a secular government that tolerated and allowed many different religious groupings and traditions in Syrian society, it is impossible to believe the Assad government would have 'banned' ceremonies around Noruz - or banned the activities of Kurds in general. Even in Afrin, Damascus had little control over public activities there, while in the North East the US and allies were responsible for the affairs of their Kurdish allies, and effectively at war with the Syrian government. Bashar al Assad and his wife Asma also liked to celebrate Christmas with other Syrians, unlike those now in Damascus, some of whom were seen setting fire to public Christmas trees just after seizing power.
Even more notably, the new 'Syrian authorities' who are following an extremist Islamist ideology, may well see the worship or celebration of Pagan gods as quite contrary to their values, and take action to prevent them. In theory such 'apostates' could be subject to even worse treatment than the Alawites. As can be seen in this news report, Kurdish women love to show their long hair, in common with 'Alawite' women - who mostly chose not to cover their hair, along with Christians and other secular groups in the country formerly known as Syria.
At the end of this report, you will also see something quite unusual – a young and vocal Iranian girl speaking to a reporter somewhere in Iran, who proudly displays her long hair in public. She does so while expressing views supporting Iran and its identity, unlike those who rallied in protest against the veil and the supposed ‘morality police’. Those groups of young people within Iran were mostly in the NW near the Iraqi border and from the Iranian Kurdish community, heavily infiltrated and influenced by US and Israeli intelligence agencies and agents, and supported by the Iranian diaspora in post-colonial countries including Canada and Australia.
Iran is only singled out for criticism and sanctioning on 'Women's rights' because the Western powers seek to discredit and isolate the Islamic Republic - a fact made clear by their failure to condemn far worse restrictions on women in West-friendly nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In these countries also, women's rights are heavily restricted in education and workplaces, and these rules of conduct written into their constitutions. Young women like those in SBS' report would do well to look at those societies, before welcoming their ideological partners now ruling Damascus with an iron fist, and whose promises of 'inclusion' and respect for Women's rights are completely hollow. It is to be hoped that Iran will further relax its legislation on head scarves while maintaining its principled stand on matters of public propriety. Depriving Western destabilisers of one of their key points of leverage against Iran would be a good move. We might then start to consider exactly why the West is hell-bent on punishing Iran for its supposed human rights abuses, while allowing the Zionist state to do exactly as it wants; taking away a woman's right to bear children being its ultimate crime.
DM 28th March 2025