US seeks to downplay Syrian army gains: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Ibrahim Mousawi, a political analyst in Beirut, about the United States condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s pledge to regain control of the entire country, saying there is no military solution to the years-long conflict.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you make of the US’s remarks there saying that there can be no political solution or no military solution to the conflict in Syria and, of course up until this time, they were going for a military solution and now on the other side of the coin we have President Assad saying that he is willing to fight to try to get the whole country back. Your take on all of this sir.

Mousawi: Of course we know by now that the kind of achievements, military achievements, that has been gained by the Syrian government, by President Bashar al-Assad, by the Syrian army on ground and in the battlefield has been very significant, has been very prominent and it is more or less getting the things into more clearer image where we could see that the government is gaining more ground, is having the upper hand so far, and this is going to open up and unfold for more and more achievements in the foreseeable future.

At this moment we know very well that the Saudis have started to send accusations and to threaten to interfere on ground, that they are ready to send tens of thousands of troops in order to fight on ground in Syria; and the United States at this stage welcomed the Saudi statements, saying that this is what they have been waiting for long time. The thing is that when the Americans try to talk about the military solution or the political solution, they are more or less trying to reiterate, or to say the same things, that President Assad has been saying since the very beginning.

President Assad said that he is ready to continue to fight terrorism and he is going to continue to do it. Also he was highlighting the necessity, the importance, the crucial role of the political solution at the same time. While the Syrian army was gaining and getting more achievements on ground, he was extending the hand that we are ready to do any kind of reconciliation with those who are ready to drop the arms, with those who have no blood of the Syrians on their hands and we will continue the political solution.

At this very moment the Americans would interfere and would cast new accusations and threats. But President Assad from his side has highlighted the importance of the political solution and he has made clear detachment between the battlefield and the negotiations. The negotiations are going to continue anyway, the political solution should be very important and number one top-notch preference and the priority to the Syrian government, but at the same time this is not going to stop them from going after the terrorists, trying to eliminate them from the Syrian ground.

Press TV: If you had to predict, and I know it is not easy, the next year to come and dealing with the situation in Syria, do you think that we are going to be working more and more towards reaching a political solution or do you see the battle continuing on the ground and that ultimately it would be with military might that ultimately determines what is going to happen in Syria?

Mousawi: We have to understand that the kind of atrocities and the kind of mentality, the kind of preaching, that the terrorist groups, the Takfiri groups are doing in Syria, you are talking about those people, the military groups that you cannot put them under any category. This is a completely new category that we have never experienced before in terms of how they make their atrocities and the crimes against the people, how they do not differentiate between an old man or a young man or a child or a woman. So here we are talking about a completely new paradigm of, if we may say, of a criminal record that is taking place under the eyes of the whole world.

So when we talk about those Takfiri groups and how they are acting, it is very important to know that the Syrian army and the Syrian government is going to continue to fight them regardless of anything.

If we talk about next year, I believe that the Syrian government is going to continue shoulder to shoulder. They are going to go into two parallel tracks. They are going to fight the terrorist groups and achieve and make more gains in the battle ground, but at the same time they are going to continue to make the negotiations.

Who is going to go with a faster pace? I believe what the Americans are trying to do, what the Saudis are trying to do, they are trying to devoid the battlefield achievements by the Syrian army from going into any political gains or having an upper hand over the terrorist groups. They are trying to save the face of these terrorist groups and they are trying to get them into a place where they could have a say in the kind of negotiations that is taking place, which is not going to gain any success, I believe.

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