Saudi Arabia, Turkey real enemies of Syria: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Mike Harris, editor of Veterans Today in Oregon, to discuss the remarks made by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem saying it is only for Syrians to decide on the country’s future elections.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has come down very hard and strong and has been quite adamant about these red lines. Do you think that they will be abided by?

Harris: Well I think they need to be abided by and I support the Syrian foreign minister in his position. Why would any existing government that was duly elected in, I believe June of 2013, why would they want to abdicate and give away their right to govern, their right to rule because they won by an overwhelming majority?

President Assad won that election by 86 percent of the vote.  And so to have these outside interlopers try to come into the country, create mass death, mass destruction, terrorism on a grand scale withinside Syria in an effort to leverage the duly-elected president out of his office, I think that is …, it has the fingerprints of a foreign intelligence agency, in this case the Saudis and the Turks who are working to depose President Assad.  That has been their goal all along. It is not merely President Assad but his brother was murdered, his father died under mysterious circumstances. They have been out after to get this family for a very, very long time and it is time that the Syrian people stood behind their president, stood as a unified country and expel these interlopers, get them out and truthfully I think the whole peace process is a mistake on Assad government’s part because all they are going to do is to legitimize the opposition.

Press TV: Well let’s look at what you have just said, you think that the talks are mistake so you are saying that the only solution is a military one?

Harris: I would like to see the forces that are in there, the foreign mercenaries, the terrorists that are in Syria, I would like to see them withdrawn but if they are not going to withdraw willingly then they need to be crushed.

Press TV: And your anticipation in all this, you mentioned the Turks and the Saudis of course being some of the main entities of course in the region against the Syrian government and its people. So with this lack of belief in the possible progress in these peace talks do you see this whole situation failing and perhaps going back full force at war?

Harris: Well that is the downside and the Syrians, the Syrian people did not ask for this. These are foreign forces who have come in, they are masquerading as the opposition, they are really terrorists, let’s call them what they are. They have been inserted in Syria for the purpose of causing deaths and destruction to topple the government and so what choices the legitimate government have but to resist this with everything that they can and look at who their real enemies are and it may even be time for the Syrian army to go on the offensive against their protagonists, if you will.

Press TV: Are you talking about governments besides the terrorists themselves? You are talking about entities like the Turkish government, the Saudi government?

Harris: Well absolutely. Who is providing the material support for these terrorists? It is all coming out of Turkey, it is coming through Israel and Jordan, it is being funded by the Saudis. Those are the people …, those are the real enemies. The Jihadis in the field, they do not buy their own ammunition, they do not purchase their own guns, they are given to them by the people who are providing the material support. We know it is Turkey, we know it is Saudi Arabia, we know Israel is involved. So let’s look at who the real enemies are, let’s drop the window dressing and go after the ones who are really trying to topple the Assad regime, the duly-elected Assad regime.  

Press TV: What about the Western role in all of this, the United States, and from London to Paris, how do you see their role in all of this?   

Harris: I see them as very capable enablers that are enabling the Saudis and the Turks to get away with what they have been doing and I am embarrassed by the US role that the US should have smacked Erdogan down very, very hard whenever this nonsense first started.

The US pretends that we are anti-terrorist. Meanwhile, they support terrorism around the world. It really is an embarrassment for the American people that this is allowed to happen. The US government is not a monolith, there are elements within the US government that truly do fight terrorism and there is [sic] other elements both within the government and within private industry that are supporters of terrorism.  

As we have said before we know who the buyers of the stolen oil out of Iraq and Syria are. We know who is buying the oil. We also know who is providing the material support. They are the ones who enabled this. People who buy the oil, the banks that clear the transactions, the companies that transport the oil, the oil does not get from the ground to the refinery by itself. Somebody is moving it. These are the people that need to also be taken into account. These are also the enemies of the Syrian people.

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