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Turkey, Saudi policies in Syria destabilizing Mideast: Activist

Sunday, 22 November 2015 5:39 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 November 2015 5:39 PM ]

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaking with a journalist from China's Phoenix television in Syrian capital Damascus on November 22, 2015 (Photo credit: Syrian Arab News Agency).

Press TV has interviewed Ajamu Baraka, a human rights activist in Atlanta, to discuss the remarks made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying that the terrorists have grown in power after the United States and its allies started aerial strikes against purported Daesh hideouts.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you make of the Syrian President’s comments basically that he is actually praising Russia for what they have done in actually helping to contain the terrorists and at the same time said that the United States really has not been effective and if anything perhaps have even helped the terrorist group ISIL or Daesh?

Baraka: Well in those comments it really is not any new news. It is quite clear from all researches, from various reports where the material support emanated from. They served as the foundation for the emergence of ISIS (Daesh). That material support came from the Saudis, from Qatar, it came from elements in Jordan and they were provided logistical and political support from the US and various other western powers. So President Assad was basically stating the obvious, something that in some ways is not a controversial topic anymore.

Press TV: When you look at the countries he talked about -Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – it seems to many if you look at the essence of for example the Saudi regime and compare it to the Turks, it would seem like a strange alliance in some ways. What do you think it is that has brought these very, very different entities together in actually supporting such a terrorist group when of course the Turkish government claims to be or according to its constitution is supposed to be secular? So why would they support a terrorist group like Daesh?

Baraka: They had some common strategic interest at one point. The Turkish government saw interest in dislodging the Assad government in Syria, the Saudis had a similar interest and those interest converged and that is what we had is a relatively strange sort of coalition.

So they are both pursuing their strategic interests but they have the support of NATO and the US and those interests converged in a common policy in Syria. The idea was to try to get rid of President Assad and they worked out the differences at a later date but as we have seen the quick victory that they thought they are going to be able to achieve in Syria did not occur and as a consequence those policies have further destabilized the entire region.

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