France heavily involved in Syrian conflict: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gearóid Ó Colmáin, a political analyst, about the UN-backed cessation of hostilities in Syria and the resumption of peace talks for the crisis-hit country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How much hope should there be in any peace talks considering the conditions of course are long-lasting ceasefire and access to aid?

Colmain: Well, the question of access to aid is important because the French are emphasizing the necessity of getting aid into Syria. That means nothing of course. When the French government talks about sending aid into countries where it has waged proxy wars, what it actually means is providing safe zones for the delivery of arms. The whole humanitarian corridor rhetoric was invented by Bernard Kouchner in the 1960s, when France was waging a proxy war in Nigeria and they used to bring in weapons there in ambulances, disguised as humanitarian aid.

So, the French concerns about the humanitarian aid mean absolutely nothing.

And the second point that I’d like to make is that the French have been the root of this war, they are one of the main belligerents. And the French have been very very active on the ground in Syria, aiding the terrorists. There have been French special forces on the ground in Syria. French special forces were arrested by the Syrian army in 2012.

So, the French are up to the neck in this business and they are continuing to supply their ally Saudi Arabia with weapons. The Qataris of course are also being supplied by the French with weapons. In fact, one of the reasons why the French have claimed to be unable to defeat ISIS is because they gave all their weapons to the Saudis and the Saudis are giving them to ISIS.

So, this is a bit of a farce to suggest that the French are fighting terrorism in Syria, but I think the French are concerned about the successes of the Syrian Arab Army. The Syrian Arab Army has been very well equipped in particular in the last year, a lot of retraining. This is something Assad spoke about a few years ago. He said that they were going to have to retrain the entire army for fourth-generation warfare. They’ve been doing that. The Russians have supplied [them] with magnificent equipment. Iranians have given [them] sophisticated aerial reconnaissance equipment. So, they are now, I think, capable of retaking the country.

There is no real ceasefire in Syria. The main terrorists are still active there and those terrorists are receiving aid from Western countries through their proxy states… their client states, that is to say Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular.

The Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate, and the Islamic State are still active. They haven’t declared a ceasefire and they are no moderate rebels. So to talk about a ceasefire between the Syria army and the moderate rebels is nonsense, it’s a fantasy, it’s a bluff, it’s an attempt by… I think the Russians are attempting to create some sort of diplomatic space, some kind of rational space for some kind of progress and a de-escalation; but I don’t think that is going to happen.

The Syrian Arab Army is winning this war. They’re now very well-equipped, they’ve got Russia and Iran behind them. The West is panicking and because there is a real possibility that the West will destroy their terrorist forces on the ground in Syria.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk