Fanfare at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joseph Biden, died down with atypical harsh security measures in Washington.
The troublemaker of the democratic calm, Donald Trump, has practically immobilized the last weeks of his rule by the threat of impeachment and the blocking of all his accounts on social networks.
On January 15, thousands of U.S. National Guard soldiers were stationed in Washington to provide security for Biden's inauguration.
The streets were blocked and blocked so that some American correspondents wrote that Washington reminds them of the Green Zone in Baghdad or the neighborhoods of Mosul, Fallujah or something else in the Middle East, where the American army is located.
The inauguration was calm and quiet.
And then he came, the first day of Biden's presidency.
On the morning of January 21 in Baghdad, two suicide bombers exploded in the marketplace on Tayaran Square in the midst of a crowd of people.
The death toll varies, with France 24 reporting that at least 28 were killed and at least 70 were injured.
Let me remind you that Iraq is a place where the strength of two countries - the United States and Iran - is being shown.
On January 3, 2020, Iranian general Soleimani and his loyal ally, the head of the People's Mobilization Forces, al-Muhandis, were killed in Baghdad.
Throughout the year, the Iranians threatened terrible revenge on the guilty, and by the end of 2020, the tension reached such a point that the Iraqi Prime Minister sent a secret mission of negotiators to Tehran in order to obtain guarantees from Iran that pro-Iranian proxies would not commit any provocations on the anniversary of the deaths of Soleimani and al- Muhandis on January 3, 2021.
The conversation went on behind closed doors, the press, of course, did not announce the results, but it is known that upon the return of the negotiators to Baghdad, the Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant for Abu Ali al-Askari, the head of the Iraqi Hezbollah service, who was charged under Article 4 the country's law on terrorism.
Sepah_pasdaran, the official channel of Iran's IRGC, has promised al-Kazimi retribution for the arrest.
But the anniversary of Soleimani's death in Iraq went off smoothly, without incident.
SUVs with portraits of the general drove across Iraq, there were night memorial prayers and a "march to Baghdad", but after the demonstrations everyone went home: the unbalanced Trump threatened to launch a military strike on Iran in the event of any "wrong" "fireworks".
Esmail Gaani, who remained in charge of the most influential "Al Quds", Iranian President Rouhani and other top officials of the Iranian government kept repeating that "retribution" for the death of Soleimani will surely happen, but "in a timely manner."
In general, Iraq and Iran have had very tense relations over the past year.
Iraq blocked almost $ 6 billion of Iranian money in its banks, which it received from Iraq as payment for electricity and kept in its accounts in the neighboring fraternal state.
But after November 2020 bank sanctions, Baghdad blocked the money and promised to fix the problem later.
It got to the point that Iran temporarily cut off the power supply to Iraq and plunged it into darkness.
But over the Middle East - even plunged into darkness - the shadow of Trump loomed unbridled, who drove the aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf and patrolled the skies with B-52 bombers capable of carrying up to 32,000 kg of weapons, including atomic bombs.
Throwing curses into the sky and trampling American flags, the eastern armed men were still in control.
Iranian proxies were forced to restrict activity and literally go to the bottom on the direct orders of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Instead of Soleimani flying freely to Baghdad, holding meetings in the prime minister's chair, the current head of Al-Quds arrives in Iraq on a visa and carefully.
The Taliban in Afghanistan got out of prisons and ironed their dressing gowns to integrate into the Afghan government and state security forces (Iran is lobbying for this, by the way).
Trump, keeping promises, withdrew US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The process went on, in a word.
On the very first day of Biden's rule, Trump's world order seemed to fly off its hinges.
Iraq: A terrorist attack in Baghdad with dozens of victims and an imminent escalation between Iraqi state security forces and Hezbollah cells and the Popular Mobilization Forces.
In a day, two (two more) attacks on a US Army logistics convoy in the Abu Ghraib region of Baghdad.
Guerrilla warfare, blowing up columns, suicide bombers - everything is classic.
Syria: Transfer of detained ISIS * terrorists in Kurdish-controlled areas of Northern Syria to the US military base in Al Tanfa.
The IRGC's official Telegram channel sepah_pasdaran reports that on January 21, the Americans transferred 70 more militants to their military base, and notifies that about 4,000 ISIS members are being held in the Kurdish regions in northern Syria.
“The Americans seem to be reviving ISIS, or perhaps creating a new terrorist group using the dismembered body of ISIS,” the Iranian IRGC reported.
Coincidence or not - at this time Russian experts on the Middle East write that Robert Malley will become Biden's new attorney for Iran.
If this appointment happens, the concern of the Iranians is understandable: for under Obama, Malli was in charge of the ISIS issue.
But, on the other hand, this means that he could not help but interact with Suleimani and Al-Quds, which the Democrats called the "main world fighter against ISIS."
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the increase in terrorist activity is avalanche-like, reports of bombings, murders and terrorist attacks are long lists of recent weeks.
With the departure of Trump, opponents of the peace process with the participation of the Taliban intensified in the leadership of Afghanistan, proposing the other day to hang the Taliban, and not to release, which caused a lightning-fast reaction and a progressive increase in terrorist attacks in Kabul and throughout the country.
From terrorist bombings in Baghdad to Netanyahu's boot-licking — albeit a new boot — all have but one objective: trap another POTUS into spending US blood & treasure to “confront” Iran
The cringe-worthy obsequiousness notwithstanding, desperate plotting against Iran will fail again ...
- Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 21, 2021
The paramilitary alignment of forces between the "Democrats" and the former Trump administration, the statements of William Burns, nominated for the post of head of the CIA, that "the United States needs a new foreign policy", powerfully destabilized the entire Middle East region.
"Cat from home - mice to dance" - this proverb perfectly describes what is happening today.
Trump is gone, but what can we expect from Biden?
Will Washington resort to a complete overhaul of its Middle East policy?
What to do with those agreements with the Trump administration that are already underway and have already changed the region?
An amazing paradox: the extravagant and uncontrollable Trump almost mothballed the region with his "psychopathic", and young cool fellow Democrats from the Peacebuilding Institutes and other think thank's defending human rights brought down this fragile world on the very first day of their administration.
Let's take a look at the calendar of 2021: presidential elections in Iran in June, early parliamentary elections in Iraq in June, presidential elections in Syria in spring and summer, and the question is in the air: will Assad be legalized.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have become more active.
Indian Prime Minister Modi, who was friends with Trump, and he thought about the future.
At least six months of turbulence, and then - as luck would have it.
Someone will definitely not have to sleep.
* "Islamic State" (IS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.