US meddling in Syria

US meddling in Syria’s internal affairs started long ago: Danny Makki

A prominent London-based analyst tells Press TV that the US has been intervening in Syrians’ internal affairs by arming the same anti-Syrian terrorist groups which it had hypocritically put in its terrorism blacklist.

Press TV,

26 December, 2012

The comments come as some Western countries as well as their regional dictatorships and monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are trying hard to create an excuse for foreign intervention in the country by raising concerns about the Syrian army’s chemical weapons and the possibility of them being used by the government against the armed al-Qaeda terrorists. Syria has been experiencing a foreign-sponsored armed unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil at the hands of terrorist groups. 
 

Press TV has talked with Danny Makki, the co-founder of the Syrian Youth in Britain (SYB), from London, to further discuss the issue. Makki is joined by two additional guests on Press TV’s News Analysis program: Taleb Ibrahim, political analyst from the Syrian capital city of Damascus and Osman Bakash, director of the Central Office of al-Tahrir party from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. 
 

Press TV: Mr. Makki, one analyst was telling us that [Lakhdar] Brahimi [the UN-Arab League Special Representative for Syria] should differentiate between the terrorists and the opposition. Do you agree? 
 

Makki: No, I do not agree. There is not a very big difference between the terrorists, who are being supported by the West, and Lakhdar Brahimi faces a monumental challenge in finding a solution to the Syria crisis. 
 

His biggest obstacles are twofold; firstly to find an international consensus which is agreed to by all the warring parties in order to stop the violence and stop the crisis. This will face a significant challenge by some of the regional powers, which have been present in arming and funding the Syrian armed opposition, such states as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, who obviously pose a significant problem to Lakhdar Brahimi as they will reject any solution which recognizes the presence of the Syrian government and which rejects the arming of groups inside of Syria. 
 

The second biggest problem that he faces is the ensuing policy of terrorism. I mean how can he discuss a political crisis and a political solution in the face of terrorism, which is supported by regional powers? 
 

I mean Lakhdar Brahimi, he even said to the UN Security Council, the reports of thousands of foreign fighters in Syria, radicals, extremists, potentially Islamists, who have been sent by regional powers in order to fight inside of Syria.
 

This is one of the biggest problems with ... 
 

Press TV: Mr. Makki, a lot of people have been saying now that as long as terrorists are operating inside Syria..., our guest there in Damascus [Taleb Ibrahim] saying that people of course are saying those terrorists are not representing us and their presence has been acknowledged, those who are carrying out the bombing campaigns, etc. 
 

With those terrorists inside Syria is a political solution still possible? Is any way out of the crisis still possible? 
 

Makki: Well, conspicuously political solution still has to be on the table. 
 

I mean in the end of every crisis and conflict there has to be a political solution, which takes both sides and reaches an agreement, but the fact that this terrorism is continuing and it is acknowledged by some organizations and some states, but nothing is being done to, actually, stop it. 
 

This is the big problem, which is creating a quagmire in Syria. 
 

Everyone knows that Turkey and Qatar and Saudi Arabia are funding and arming the Syrian opposition. We understand that the West is sending non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition but nothing is being done, internationally speaking, by the United Nations or any regional organizations, to actually, stop the flow of arms to the rebels and this in itself is a travesty because the Syrian crisis would stop within weeks and months if this direct and significant funding and arming would stop.

There are some issues which I like to raise, which your guest in Beirut [Osman Bakash] discussed. He said that Syria is similar to Libya and Egypt and Tunisia; what is happening in Syria is completely different from what is happening in the rest of the Arab World. 
 

What is happening in Syria is not a revolution as he said. What is happening in Syria is a brutal proxy war, which is being waged by numerous regional powers. This is very clear for the entire world to see. He said that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, essentially, discussed the post-Assad era, this is completely inconceivable as what Putin stated was that we need a political solution, he did not discuss about post-Assad era and this is in fact very naive to discuss this in these terms and Putin in the Russian president and he stated that there has to be a synergy or mechanism to end the violence in Syria in a way, which pleases all parties. 
 

This is what is needed and this is what should happen. But as you said yourself, terrorism is the biggest obstacle to any political solution and ... 
 

Press TV: Mr. Makki, the US has been continuing to insist that Assad should step down before any solution can be reached but some are saying that that call and that insistence in itself is, actually, stalling any kind of effort to reach a solution. What do you think? 
 

Makki: This is a flagrant intervention and interference in the internal affairs of another state. I mean who the Americans are to give orders to a state in the Middle East, which has been fighting their hegemony and their imperialism for the last 40 years? 
 

And the United States clearly has a very hypocritical foreign policy when it comes to the Syria crisis. 

 

This is manifested in the fact that they blacklisted the Jibhat al-Nusrah [the terrorist Western-Arab-supported armed group which is currently fighting against Syrian government and people], an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, at the same time funding and arming and giving weapons to the rebels, as stinger missiles. 
 

So they blacklist one terrorist movement on one scale, yet still provide arm support for the rebels. On the other hand yet they do not understand that the same people who they are giving weapons to are the same people who they are blacklisting [as terrorists]. 
 

So this is a true quagmire of foreign policy and one which happened in Afghanistan and one which is repeating itself today..., I mean I agree with your guest in Damascus [Taleb Ibrahim] when he says that the unity of Syria must be preserved. Syria must be preserved as a state in its diversed ethnic, socio-political structure and formation; this is essential. 
 

But I just like to say one thing to your guest in Beirut [Osman Bakash], who discussed that he is against America and against the Western plans to dominate Syria, yet he supports the brutal proxy war which is happening [in Syria], yet he states that he is against foreign interference and foreign intervention. 
 

The foreign states and some of the [Persian Gulf and Middle Eastern] regional powers are intervening directly in the Syria crisis for the last eight months. This has been done through logistics, through finance, through funding, through giving arms and weapons to provide conduit for armed oppositions and political opposition to give conferences in. Intervention and interference has begun for a year ago...

Press TV: A lot of people have been saying that, especially in the West now, amid allegations of chemical weapons use, that the Assad regime has actually become a desperate and may even resort to using these kinds of weapons. Do you think that the Assad regime is reaching that point of desperation that it could use these kinds of weapons or do you think that as some are saying this is only a pretext to launch some kind of a military intervention? 
 

Makki: No, no. This is clearly a pretext for foreign intervention. I mean the fact that the West failed in ousting President Assad and ousting the Syrian government, they have had resorted to the means of propaganda; the same as which we saw in Iraq with Saddam Hussein’s so-called chemical weapons and the same which we see in Syria today. 
 

But the biggest statement of support of the fact that the Syrian government will not use chemical weapons and the fact that if they do have chemical weapons, they are in secure locations, is manifested by the statements of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He stated that Syria’s chemical weapons, and I quote, “are in a safe, secure area in one or two places inside of Syria and they will not be used”. 
 

Lavrov even claimed that they asked the Syrian government, three, four, five, six times that are the weapons secure? And the Syrian replied that they are secure and they will not be used. 
 

So this is essentially a false flag situation, which is advocated by NATO and their allies to administer a propaganda war against the Syrian government. 
 

To your guest in Beirut [Osman Bakash] who is clearly a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has an atrocious history of human rights in Syria, who stated clearly live on television that he wants an Islamic state, what about the numerous sects and religions inside of Syria who do not want an Islamic state? What do we do with them? Are you supporting or justifying ethnic cleansing?