West's truce bid seeks to prevent terrorists' defeat in Aleppo: Analyst

Terrorists have shelled a mobile military hospital in the embattled city of Aleppo, killing two female Russian nurses and injuring two others. On the other hand, New Zealand, Egypt and Spain introduced a draft resolution at the UN Security Council – which was vetoed by Russia and China – to establish a ceasefire in Aleppo. These measures coming right at a time when Syrian forces, with support from Russia, are nearing victory in the battle for Aleppo, have given rise to speculations that they are part of systematic efforts by Western governments and their proxies to dissuade Moscow from helping the Syrian army deal a final blow to militants and flush them out of the flashpoint city. In this episode of The Debate, Press TV has spoken to James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, and Brian Downing, a political analyst, both from Washington, to review the latest developments in Aleppo as well as the reasons why certain countries pushed for a ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council.  

James Jatras believes that they (West and its allies) are obviously trying to discourage Russia from assisting the Syrian army in its push to recapture the rest of Aleppo, adding that Russian authorities should not be dissuaded by the Western governments’ “crocodile tears.”

“This resolution that's going to be dealt with at the Security Council, and all of the media blather that we are getting here in the West about the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, frankly, these are crocodile tears coming from these Western governments and from Western media,” he noted.

Jatras further blasted mainstream media for turning a blind eye to the disastrous humanitarian situation in Aleppo, saying that they are using a kind of “psychological human shield” to reinforce the terrorist forces that are being supported by their governments.

“The fact of the matter is that people are concerned about the humanitarian toll in this war. The war needs to end. The support for the terrorists needs to stop,” he underlined.  “Unfortunately, the killing of these Russian aid personnel just highlights the extent to which Russia and Syria do want to care for the humanitarian concerns of Aleppo. But the real problem is the war and the support for these terrorists.”

Asked about the prospect of the upcoming talks between Washington and Moscow about the Syrian crisis, he replied, “How many times have we seen talks between the US and Russia, especially between Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry? They come to some sort of an agreement to do something to resolve the Syrian crisis and immediately as soon as Mr. Kerry leaves, either he or President Obama come and say Assad must go.”

Jatras is of the opinion that they (Western leaders) seem to want to preserve whatever is left of the terrorist groups as some kind of leverage in an eventual peace settlement which is going to keep Assad in power.

Meanwhile, Brian Downing, the other panelist on the show, predicted that since any kind of revengeful response entails more escalation, Moscow is not going to give a harsh response to the recent hospital attack by the militants.    

“I don't think that they're going to really increase their bombing campaign. It's already quite intense. I don't think they're going to introduce ground troops. Remember most of the Russian generals were lieutenants and captains in Afghanistan 30 years ago and they really don't want to be part of an escalation in Syria. So, I don't see a more vigorous response coming from Russia because of this,” he reiterated.

Downing also added that at the present time, the fate of the war in Syria highly depends on the kind of foreign policy US President-elect Donald Trump chooses to adopt.

"Predicting what Donald Trump will do in foreign policy is a very difficult undertaking. It is possible I suspect that President Trump will continue support for the Syrian Democratic Forces who are well east of Aleppo ... Beyond that, I have personally never seen any point in backing these rebel groups. They are not advancing any American values in the region,” he said, adding, “I'm pretty skeptical there with all the generals that Donald Trump is putting up around him that he's going to simply walk away from a fight.”

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