Russia sending message to Daesh, Turkey: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Rodney Martin, a former US congressional staffer from Los Angeles, on the reasons behind Russia’s use of submarine attack against Daesh positions near Syrian city of Raqqah.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: These Russian strikes from the submarine are coming at the time when Britain and France have both started bombarding Syria as well. What do you make of it?

Martin: Well, I think it’s significant and it sends a message not only to ISIL (Daesh), but also to Turkey, who illegally and barbarically shot down a Russian plane recently.

But you have Russia now deployed and utilizing assets not only air assets but also naval assets in the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea.

It sends a message to ISIL that Russia is going to ramp up its deployment of military equipment specifically from the air and from the sea.

And also tells Turkey that it had better stand down these brazen and provocative attempts to basically test the waters for no-fly zone over Syria with Russia now deploying additional resources in the region to safeguard its pilots that are really fighting terrorism, while Turkey lies and supplies ISIL.

So, I think this is significant. It tells the West who the real fighters of terrorism are. The United States and the West have not deployed this type of assets and resources to fight ISIL; quite the contrary, they’ve been supplying ISIL.

Press TV: Right now, Mr. Martin, this almost sounds like a game of chess over here, were their moves and counter-moves, whereas Russia’s using its submarine and stepping up its fight against Daesh, but at the same time we’re seeing Turkey for example intervene in Iraq and deploys forces over there. And now, how far is this game going to go?

Martin: Well, I’m not sure that it’s chess as much as this is Russia basically responding to these provocations. Basically the more that Russia is successful in combating ISIL you see the mask coming off the ugly faces of Turkey and the West in their efforts to keep ISIL propped up and that’s what they’ve been doing.

ISIL has been decimated by the Russian campaign, and Turkey and the West is doing everything they can to keep their bogeymen propped up.

Let’s understand that they also deployed some of their bogeymen down the Yemen to protect the Saudi campaign down there.

So, I think this is more an effort to prop up ISIL, and then you have the Turkish incursion and violating Iraqi sovereignty is another effort to prop up ISIL there.

So, I think what we’re seeing is the mask is coming off the ISIL and when the mask comes off and we see Turkey and the West and Saudi Arabia as who the real face of ISIL is.

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