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Russia pursing consistent anti-terror policy: Analyst

Saturday, 26 December 2015 9:16 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 December 2015 9:16 AM ]

A video grab made on November 23, 2015, shows an explosion after airstrikes carried out by Russian air force on a Daesh facility in the Syrian province of Idlib. ©AFP

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jatras, a former US Senate Foreign Policy Analyst from Washington, on a Russian airstrike that killed Zahran Alloush, the notorious leader of the so-called Jaysh al-Islam terrorist group in suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Press TV: How important do you think this gain ends?

Jatras: I think it’s important; it’s very good news and gain actually. And it shows for one thing how good the Russian intelligence is coming from the Syrian sources, what they call human intelligence, to know about a meeting like this in real time.

But also it shows the consistency of the Russian position that they’re not limiting their strikes to Daesh or to al-Qaeda or to Ahrar al-Sham, but they’re looking at all of these terrorist…movements, as being essentially the same and aligned with one another in fighting against the legitimate Syrian government... And I think this is a very good approach.

Press TV: All of this, I would imagine, can be put down to the fact that Russia has been supporting Syria in fighting against terrorist groups, something, which many people would argue the US-led coalition has been unsuccessful in. How important do you think that aspect is?

Jatras: It’s extremely important and it’s very consistent. It’s a fairly linear approach; Support Syria, kill the terrorists! It’s really not hard to understand that the Western approach seems to be ‘Well, we don’t like some of the terrorists, but we do see them as an element that can further our policy, because we have to get rid of Assad, too. And it’s not clear what we want to get out of this.”

It’s a very confused policy that the West has complicated by this simple fact, with countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for whom these groups are their creatures. They’re creatures of their policy and seeking to overturn the existing Syrian state…

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