France attacks to serve US agenda in Mideast: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Joe Quinn, an editor and researcher of sott.net in Paris, to discuss the deadly string of coordinated terrorist attacks in and around the French capital of Paris.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Why do you think France has become a target of terrorist attacks?

Quinn: Well I think this has to be seen in the context right now of the French government following the policy in Syria and in Iraq of the US government which has been to not take the terrorist threat from ISIS (Daesh) in Syria seriously over the past year or two since ISIS has been on the scene and we have seen what the US government in particular to be giving a kind of free hand to the terrorists in Syria and Iraq to commit terrorist acts and to take over Syria and Iraq and establish themselves there and then of course to create in the same process this massive influx of refugees from Syria fleeing these ISIS terrorists, the French government and the US government have not taken seriously and of course there is a possibility that amongst these refugees from Syria, you have ISIS terrorists who are capable of carrying out these kinds of attacks.

Press TV: And who actually benefits from these attacks? We already have seen a rise of Islamophobia in France. Who is actually benefiting from attacks like this taking place, certainly not Muslims?

Quinn: No, certainly not Muslims which puts a different spin on it. I mean of course there is quite a lot of people within the French establishment and within western governments’ establishments in general who would like to create division between Muslims and western Christians and have been doing that really since the beginning of the war on terror. So there also has to be the possibility that this could be in some way some kind of a stage-managed operation [which] is obviously quite possible as well.

I am not saying that the French government or an aspect of French government was involved but of course when you talk about America and America having supported kind of Jihadi terrorists in Syria and Iraq for many years, the question has to be raised as to whether these terrorists who carried out these attacks may have been in some way or another in the pay or under the influence of some aspect of the US government for example.              

Press TV: Well France being targeted by terrorist attacks, we have the Charlie Hebdo shootings and also this very recent one happening in Paris, different locations being targeted. How does that sway the public opinion when it comes to support of France’s foreign policy?  

Quinn: Well exactly among the certain sections of the population at least it would tend to make them much more anti-Muslim, make them anti-immigration and generate support, I suppose, or pressure on the French government to engage more in these kinds of western wars of conquest in the Middle East.

For example next week, France’s only aircraft carrier is set to sail to the Mediterranean, along the Mediterranean towards the [Persian] Gulf to engage supposedly in attacks on ISIS, so this all serves a very particular agenda. These kinds of terror attacks in general clearly serve the agenda of those governments in the West who would like to be more involved and have more political capital to essentially wage for the wars and for their invasions of Middle Eastern countries and control that region.

So at a very basic level I think when we see these kinds of terror attacks that are blamed on Muslims or Muslim terrorists, they have to be seen in the proper context which is that ultimately it serves western and specifically American and Israeli foreign policy effectively in the Middle East, in controlling the Middle East.

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