Syria opposition no different than Daesh: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Rodney Martin, a former US congressional staffer in Los Angeles, about Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling for an end to “unrealistic and illogical” demands for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: From what the Russian foreign minister has said I deduct, and correct me if I am wrong, that things are pretty much back to square one. This pre-condition of Assad leaving is an obsession that pretty much has been there since 2011-12?

Martin: Lavrov is correct and what has gone missing by the jackals in the West that are saying that President Assad needs to go - and they are the same jackals by the way that have created havoc and created instability in the Middle East for the last, say, 50 years, I dare say since 1918 - and the majority of the world recognizes President Assad.

If you look at the portions of Syria that are still controlled and ministered by the Assad government, they are a functioning government that is an area where all ethnicities and religions are protected and the rights are secured. If you look at the areas controlled by the so-called opposition, which are foreign fighters that once even included ISIL, you have horrendous violations of human rights, you have rape, you have anarchy and so how can anybody with half a brain recognize the Syrian opposition as anything much different than ISIL or ISIS? And let’s understand ISIL and ISIS was created by the West to destabilize Syria and Iraq and to carve them up into separate geopolitical entities that benefit Israel.

Press TV: What about the fact that there has been some movements, diplomatically, when it comes to some of the regional players - and that would be Saudi Arabia in particular, for example going to Russia on a number of occasions, the defense minister and the King - and there were some talks about some movements there, but it seems like they came out with nothing out of that but yet there was some momentum there.

Do you think that there is a chance that there would be, after Iran’s nuclear deal, perhaps some chance of some kind of resolution if Iran was involved, Saudi Arabia etc.?

Martin: Well I am not optimistic. You might recall the most recent meeting between the Saudi representative and Sergei Lavrov. Sergei Lavrov wiped his brow and made a rather interesting comment regarding the intellectual ability or capabilities of the Saudi representative. Saudi representative was harping about the need for regime change in Damascus, and Damascus is the functioning legitimate government that is protecting the minorities, the Christians and everybody else in Syria.

And let me just state for the record that if the Syrian opposition took over the remaining portions of Syria, you would have probably the same series of events in that portion of Syria that takes place in the portions of Syria that ISIL controls. I do not think there is a difference between the so-called moderate Syrian opposition that the West is supporting and ISIL, which the West also created and it seems to have gotten a little out of hand. It seems interesting that both the Syrian opposition and ISIL have the same US Humvees, the same US weapons, and they seem to always get US supplies airdropped to them both sides.

So it just seems rather interesting and I think Russia sees this clearly. Russia has a very intricate and very sophisticated intelligence operations, and they have a military base in Syria and it has not gone unnoticed that the West would love to drive the last remaining Russian military base out of the Mediterranean.

Press TV: And the final question, we did not talk about Turkey. They had some airstrikes on Syria for the first time on August 30 and just a week earlier Israel attacked Syria. Do you think there is a slow advancement into Syrian territory by Turkey, by Israel at some point, and also with US cooperation that maybe there is still a chance they think that they are going to break the back of the Syrian army?

Martin: Absolutely. What they are also trying to do is they are hoping that Syria disintegrates and they are all going to grab a portion much like in the aftermath of World War I when the Ottoman Empire collapsed everybody grabbed a piece. And what they are hoping for is that the Syrian army will collapse and Turkey will grab a piece of Syria and Israel will grab more of Syrian territory than it already illegally occupies.

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