Russia Checks Western Lies on Syria
By Finian Cunningham
September 25, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "Sputnik
"-You have to hand it to Russia. In recent
weeks, one move after another by Moscow over the Syrian crisis could
be accompanied by the audible word “check”, leaving Washington and
its minions grappling with disorientation about how to respond to
the Russian moves.
At the heart of the West’s disorientation what is being exposed is
its glaring criminal deceptions over Syria.
This week, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria
Zahkarova probed the Western rationale towards Syria with this
incisive proposition.
She said that if Washington insists that Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad should stand down, then the United States
government should henceforth remove its signature from the 2012
Geneva Communiqué. The same logical ultimatum applies to Britain and
France.
That communiqué, signed three years ago
by international governments, as well as the United Nations,
European Union and Arab League, clearly states that “the political
future of Syria must be determined by the Syrian people themselves”.
The binding document had followed lengthy
negotiations between Russia, China and the Western powers, and it
was signed in Geneva in the summer of 2012 under the auspices
of then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Hillary Clinton was the US
Secretary of State at the time.
Nowhere in the Geneva accord
is it mentioned that Syria’s Assad should relinquish power.
It merely endorses a political process of dialogue
among Syrian parties, the outcome of which is to be mandated by the
Syrian people. In fact, two years after the communiqué was signed
the Syrian people voted by a huge majority to re-elect Assad as the
country’s leader.
Yet Western powers continue
to assert that Assad “has to go”.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel this week appeared
to break the Western ranks when she said that Bashar al-Assad must
be part of the political negotiations to solve the Syrian conflict.
Nevertheless, Washington, Britain and France
remain implacable in their insistence that the Syrian president has
to stand down. In other words, these Western powers are unilaterally
demanding regime change in spite of the fact that they signed up to
the Geneva Communiqué, which makes no such stipulation. With typical
unreasonable arrogance, Washington and its allies appoint themselves
to over-ride the sovereign right of the Syrian nation.
Last week, while in London, Clinton’s successor
John Kerry repeated the American demand that “Assad must go”.
Speaking alongside his British counterpart Philip Hammond, Kerry
said he was open to talks with Russia on the Syrian crisis, but that
the bottom-line for Washington and London was that the Syrian leader
had to vacate office.
“We’re prepared
to negotiate. Is Assad prepared to negotiate, really negotiate? Is
Russia prepared to bring him to the table?” said Kerry.
The New York Times elucidated further Washington’s
intentions. It reported: “[American] officials indicated that the
larger goal was to draw the Russians into a political process that
would ultimately replace Syria’s government of President Bashar
al-Assad, a longtime ally of the Kremlin.”
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry
spokesman, has subsequently nailed that Western lie on Syria. If
Washington insists on Assad’s removal, then the US government should
repudiate the Geneva Communiqué. “Otherwise,” said Zakharova, “the
US is deceiving everybody.” Check!
This follows the move earlier this month when Russia
placed its support full square behind the Assad government. Moscow
has delivered military aid to Damascus in line with legal bilateral
agreements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that
the Syrian government is the primary offensive force against the
terrorist networks tearing Syria apart.
Therefore, if Washington and its Western allies
claim to be fighting against terrorism in Syria, then they should
have no objection to Russia’s support for the government
in Damascus. Check!
Again, the Russian move deftly exposes another
Western deception.
Since Moscow beefed up its military support
for Syria, Washington, London and Paris have been reeling from their
own contradictions. The West says it is alarmed that Moscow is
“shoring up the Assad regime”.
But if these powers were genuinely in the business
of “degrading and defeating” the so-called Islamic State and other
jihadist terror groups, then why should they be alarmed by Russia
supporting the principal force – the Syrian government – in the
battle against the terrorists?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed
out that the West’s logic is “upside-down”. He has also commented
that the West’s “anti-terror” coalition bombing Syria and Iraq does
not appear to be genuine in its ostensible aims. After a year
of US-led air strikes on Syria and Iraq, the terror groups seem
to be stronger than ever.
Clearly, the West’s “anti-terror” strategy is
ineffective, suggesting that the real aim of the West is to further
weaken the Syrian state.
Scrabbling around to find some cover for its naked
upside-down logic, Washington, London and Paris are now saying that
they fear that Russia’s military intervention in Syria “may lead
to an escalation of the conflict” or to a clash with the US-led
coalition.
John Kerry and his Western
counterparts have even resorted to this oxymoron. Kerry said the
“root cause” of the refugee crisis assailing Europe is the “conflict
in Syria” and that is, in his view, further “rationale” for the
removal of President Assad. How convoluted can you get?
The four-year-old conflict in Syria is so
obviously the driver for millions of Syrian refugees. But the “root
cause” that Kerry so deceptively misplaces is the criminal covert
war of regime change that Washington has launched on that country,
along with the collusion of Britain, France, Turkey and the Gulf
Arab dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
That US-led regime-change war has involved
unleashing thousands of terrorist mercenaries on Syria. It’s a
well-worn American strategy played time and again in different parts
of world down through the decades. Ukraine and Yemen are two other
current case studies of Washington’s covert state-sponsored
terrorism. Fiendishly, Western propaganda in the form of “Western
news journalism” helps to mask what should be transparent
criminality committed by Washington and its so-called allies and
clients.
Deciphering the West’s lies and deceptions is not
always an easy task.
But thanks to Russia’s logical policy, the West’s
lies in Syria are at last being nailed. We might even say
“Checkmated!”