West must end Syria crisis politically: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ken Stone, from the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, to discuss the ongoing atrocities by the foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants in Syria.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Why do you think we are still seeing civilians die by the hands of these Daesh terrorists and in general if we look at proposals for example by Moscow to Washington actually forming an alliance and working with the Syrian government to crush these terrorists but Washington continues to say no to this. If the goal is really to bring peace back to Syria and to stop the terrorists on the ground, why would not Washington agree to this?

Stone: We know that Washington’s game plan has been for regime change in Syria and to dismember the country - the same plan existed by the United States for Iraq. But I was encouraged recently by the news that Russia sent some military hardware to support the Syrian government in its fight against the Daesh terrorists and I also was encouraged by your news report on Press TV that the Russian President said he would react favorably to a request from Syria to station Russian troops to participate in the fight against the US-backed mercenaries and indeed the Iranian government recently also sent 15,000 Revolutionary Guards to Syria to participate in the fight against the terrorists.

In my opinion, the Russian and the Iranian moves are strong signals to the West that they are not going to let the legitimate government of Bashar al-Assad fall. They are saying that they have put a red line around Syria and they are showing that they realize that if the terrorists, the US-backed, the Western-backed terrorists are allowed to march into Damascus, then in due course they will be marching into Beirut, into Tehran, into Moscow and eventually even into Beijing.

So the signals that are being sent by Russia and Iran I believe have had a desired response in Washington, that it according to your latest news report has entered into military negotiations with Russia to try and find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria and I noted that Secretary of State John Kerry has made noises about restarting negotiations to find a diplomatic solution.

I think that these are positive moves. I think we are still a long way from an end to the terrible butchery that the West is waging against Syria but these are encouraging signals that perhaps a different course is now being taken and we may see an end to this humanitarian tragedy in Syria in the near future.

Press TV: What do you think Mr. Stone? We look at the situation now that is taking place in Syria, what has to happen? You have just talked about some possibilities but of course as we are talking the suffering continues, more than four and a half years people dying in that country. What has to happen in order to bring this nightmare to an end?

Stone: Well it is pretty clear that what has to happen is that the United States, Canada, other western countries and Arab monarchies that are engaged in this illegal aggression against Syria need to go back to Geneva where Russia and Iran are trying to get the United Nations peace process restarted so that there can be found a political solution rather than a military solution to the crisis in Syria and Iraq.

And we also have to look at the diplomatic flurry that Russia and Iran have also engaged in, in order to utilize the reconciliation process that has been started several years ago and led by Mother Agnes Mariam, a Syrian nun to bring together Syrians, not foreigners, Syrians of all political stripes to find a solution, a made-in-Syria solution to the problem. Those are the things that need to happen in order to bring this tragedy finally to an end.

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