US attack on Syrian army deliberate: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Marcus Papadopoulos, publisher and editor of Politics First, to discuss the United States airstrikes on a Syrian military air base in the country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: We listened to the comments of the Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, he chose the word “suspicious” for the US attack on the Syrian army position. Tell us more please.

Papadopoulos: Well first of all can I say how utterly shocked and utterly disgusted I am with the American massacre of Syrian troops in Dayr al-Zawr and can I also express my condolences to the families of the Syrian soldiers who were killed in that American airstrike.

Those Syrian soldiers, they were elite soldiers who had been recently deployed to that part of Syria to fight against ISIS (Daesh). Their deaths, their cruel deaths are not just a loss for Syria, they are a loss for the whole world because the whole world is fighting against Islamist terrorism, always engulfed by Islamist terrorism.  

Now let’s get down to disseminating what’s happened. I would like to approach in two ways. First of all, if we can assume that what happened in Dayr al-Zawr was an accident and I emphasize “if”, then what it shows is that that is what happens when the Americans do not coordinate their air actions in Syria with the Russians because if they had this would not have happened.

Secondly, that is what happens when the Americans rely on terrorist groups in Syria for intelligence because those terrorist groups in Syria the Americans are relying on will wholeheartedly give information on the coordinates, on the locations of the Syrian army in the hope that the Americans will bomb them.

However, we can look at this in another way. Was that a deliberate strike on the Syrian army by the Americans and I would say that is more than conceivable, that is very, very plausible, we know that the Americans have been complicit in the rise of ISIS in Syria, one such example is the fact that America’s staunch allies in the region –Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – have played a leading role in the emergence of ISIS in Syria and if the Americans have been against their friends supporting ISIS they would have said so and the Turks and the Saudis and the Qataris would have backed off.

We can also have a look at the response of America’s Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and let me just say about her, she really is an odious official and the Americans certainly are not short in producing odious officials. She is one, Madeleine Albright is one, Hillary Clinton is one, Donald trump is one. These people really are dreadful human beings and they are such a menace to the world. But look at her response. She used the word “regret”. Now I am sorry but regret is not the same as apologizing. Look in the Oxford English Dictionary. If she was genuine, if the Americans were genuine that this had been an accident, they would express remorse, they would apologize.

But she also attacked Russia for raising this issue at the United Nations Security Council. Well I am sorry but Russia had every right to raise it. The ceasefire which has been very, very precarious has been abided by and respected by the Syrian government and the Syrian army. However, numerous terrorist groups in Syria which the Americans are backing have not abided by it and so Russia has every right now to say that what the Americans have done in Dayr al-Zawr could be the final nail in the coffin of this so-called ceasefire.

So the fact that Samantha Power has reacted to the Russian action of referring it to the Security Council in such a hostile, in such an aggressive way, I would argue shows that what we could be looking at here is that the American strike in Dayr al-Zawr was not an accident, that it was deliberate and as Vitaly Churkin the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations said, why after all these years of the Syrian army being surrounded in Dayr al-Zawr, why did the American air force all of a sudden decides to fly into that region and attack ISIS? Why did not they do it a year ago? Why did not they do it two years ago? Why now?

Well it is no coincidence in the last few days one thousand elite Syrian soldiers were deployed to Dayr al-Zawr and then all of a sudden the Americans, a couple of days later, they carry out a murderous strike in Dayr al-Zawr and they kill possibly up to 100 Syrian soldiers. Now anything is possible in life but to me I would say that looks like and sounds like more than just a coincidence.

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