Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Oct 3, 2020 15 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Thread: If Iran judges that the conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan is creating any instability in Iran or stoking ethnic tensions, it will move quickly to secure a ceasefire via work with Ankara and Moscow based on the Astana model. Those talking about "Turkey vs. Iran" are wrong Image
Why are they wrong? Because the hidden deal between these countries, who may not always share interests, is no stoking tensions inside sovereign borders of the other. For instance Russia is wary of extremists, Turkey of PKK, Iran of ethnic tensions;
The idea that the conflict which Turkey encouraged between Azerbaijan and Armenia might be used in any way to weaken the Iran regime will stop immediately if Tehran feels this way through quick calls to Ankara and Moscow.
Ankara understands this and plans accordingly. Only some people in the West think there is some mythical idea of Ankara helping the US against the Iran regime, i.e that Turkey supports US sanctions and maximum pressure...no Turkey does not. Ankara works with Iran.
While Ankara, Iran and Russia may partition Syria into areas of influence...when it comes to internal borders...there can be no acceptance of any of these big states meddling inside eachother borders...same with relations with China.
Tehran messaging already is concern over the battles near the border. While some suggested Azerbaijan would be able to take areas of Nagorna-Karabakh or even move along the Iran border towards exclave near Turkey, Iran would be concerned about this.
The correct analysis that Turkey, Iran and Russia are the emerging powerful states is accurate and the era of 10 years of recent wars; or even 30 years of instability and global war on terror; and US hegemony is changing...as powerful states return.
The powerful states share common interests, they want to co-opt extremist groups and use them, contract them, make them proxies, but they don't want chaos and instability. They want to move in to create spheres of influence or frozen conflicts in weak states
They want to stop weak states from spreading extremism, they learned over the years that weak, ungoverned, unstable areas, spread instability. Turkey's obsession now with PKK was a result of seeing that in Syria in 2014-2015. Russia from Chechnya's lessons, Iran from various.
The goal now is for powerful states to grab up areas in other states, like Russia does in Georgia-Ukraine, or Turkey in N. Syria and Libya or Iran in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. This is how things work. No one will be allowed, by Tehran, to destabilize Iran, certainly not Turkey
Why do we know this. Because Iran also wanted to make sure there are no more Kurdish groups carrying out attacks in Iran, and it sought to stop PJAK and then also KDPI etc. It did that also through pressure and deals abroad.
The idea that the US, stretched as it is with various issue...could use the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to somehow fan flames inside Iran of protest is unlikely. Turkey won't wan that...Tehran will work to make sure it doesn't happen. And Azerbaijan is on the border, not far away
I always get complaints from Ankara analysts who claim "no, Seth, you're wrong, Ankara is hostile to Iran"...but it isn't. There are no statements by the foreign minister etc. In fact Ankara understands Iran and can work with it and has a way of doing that. It hedges.
Ankara is hostile to Israel, hostile to France...it knows how to put out statements attacking numerous countries, from Holland to Germany, Austria, India, UAE, etc...it almost never critiques Iran.

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More from @sfrantzman

Apr 17
This may seem an unlikelt conclusion, but my sense is that the Hezbollah "Radwan" force and Hamas "battalions" are sort of symptoms of the same problem in analyzing the conflicts. In both cases Israel has focused a lot of attention on these entities, as if defeating them is a measurement of achievement.
Here is why this is problematic.
Hamas didn't used to have "battalions." It used to be a much smaller terror group. It grew into a terror army with "battalions" primarily because it was allowed to. Israel's numerous wars in Gaza each ended with Israel claiming achievements against the Hamas "metro" or something else. And in each case Hamas rapidly recovered and expanded.
The 24 "battalions" are thus an example of the whole problem of managing the conflict with Hamas. It became exponentially stronger. And when the war began after the Hamas attack, I think a lot of battalions dispersed and went to ground...so the "defeat" of the battalions was only partial and partly on paper.
Read 12 tweets
Apr 16
There should be a kind of "alternate history" article(s) on how Iran and its proxies were empowered to grow exponentially in the region and it should include Israel's policies, which were ostensibly against Iran and the proxies...but explain how this ended up with Iran in an unprecedented and strong position on Israel's borders.
What I mean is the aphorism, when everyone is thinking the same thing, someone isn't thinking. It requires a critical reading of the history to explain the policies that enabled Hamas to become exponentially more powerful than it was 20 years ago.
And it requires some explanation why Israel's conception of strategy decided that having an increasingly powerful Hezbollah on the northern border, especially after the challenges of 2006...became "this is fine." Even as it became clear that Hezbollah was not deterred, but rather Israel was becoming deterred.
Read 19 tweets
Apr 15
I just realized that one outcome of Iran launching such a massive unprecedented attack using drones and missiles is that it wanted to create a new bar for such attacks in the future so it can attack Israel with fewer projectiles directly and then have it portrayed as normal and acceptable
You see all the people who already went to bat for this narrative claiming this was just a symbolic attack not meant to succeed…so they now define 350 missiles as acceptable. And so if Iran launches 20 missiles they will have redefined that as fine
The whole narrative when it comes to Israel is always to define things that are unacceptable in any other context, such as attacks on civilians, as basically normal and acceptable “retaliation” or “resistance” and thus make any Israeli response “escalation”
Read 4 tweets
Apr 15
The worst takes on the Iranian attack of April 13-14 are those who call it “symbolic”. This was a massive, unprecedented attack of historic proportions. Never before in history were so many drones, ballistic, missiles and cruise missiles (350 in total) used at the same time in an attack, and from several different fronts and directions, including attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and from the direction of Yemen and over Iraq and Jordan, and almost all of it timed to arrive within around ten minutes of eachother…

Those who think it was “symbolic” or designed not to succeed either know nothing about the weapons involved, the complexity of planning this, know nothing about history, know nothing about the complexity of the air defenses involved and billions of investment it took over four decades to meet this attack, or are simply being purposely disingenuous (more likely).
I suspect most of those making the comment aren’t purposely ignorant, they know firing 350 drones and missiles that require different times to arrive and targeting different areas of Israel with precision from four directions is incredibly complex and was not designed to fail…they need to downplay it for some reason. Because by their logic if 350 is symbolic then what would 1,000 missiles be?
If Iran wanted a symbolic attack it would have launched a dozen missiles. Does anyone say the attack on Asad base was “symbolic” and it involved two dozen missiles right?
Read 5 tweets
Apr 15
Israel historically understood that it had to be willing to go it alone.

One of the issues after October 7 is how to restore deterrence. My sense is that Iran and its proxies all feel emboldened and have tried to change the "rules" and the "equation" in the region to make it acceptable for them all to attack Israel whenever they want. Israel's partners are willing to help defend, but their message is for Israel not to respond too much...which creates a situation of endless war and managing the conflict. That is what led to Oct. 7.
Not responding and "managing" conflicts is not a good substitute for strategy. It just kicks the can down the road...and kicking the can leads Iran and its proxies to grow stronger.
There is no evidence that Iran or its proxies have gotten weaker the more the conflicts and various fronts and arenas are "managed."

Hezbollah has acquired PGMs and thousands of drones for instance.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 14
Today the narrative among some is that Iran’s unprecedented massive attack with missiles and drones is just “symbolic” and didn’t harm much so therefore it can be shrugged off.

That was the same mentality about the rocket fire from Gaza two decades ago and also the Hezbollah rocket fire and the Houthi attacks. The always change the goal posts so hundreds or thousands of missiles are no big deal. And then when Hamas massacres 1,000 people and takes 250 hostage then they are surprised.
If you don’t take one missile being fired as a threat then it becomes two and then ten and 100 and 1,000. The fact is that systematically Iran has been allowed to spread drone and missile terror around the Middle East and also sent drones to Russia to terrorize Ukrainians. Did the same people who say it was just “symbolic” say that when missiles and drones rain down on Ukrainian civilians?
The fact is that the decision to ignore Hamas rockets and then Hezbollah rockets and then Houthi attacks and then Iraqi militia attacks and now Iran’s attacks is destroying the region. Air defenses are not a magic wand OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR POLICY AND STRATEGY.
Read 9 tweets

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