Russia to step in Syria again if talks fail: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Scott Bennett, a former US army psychological warfare officer in San Francisco, to discuss the latest developments on ongoing Syria peace talks.  

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: These talks are taking place and there is a lot of hope, let’s say, surrounding these talks and a lot of words like “would” and “could” and “might” being used there by Staffan de Mistura. However, will there be some form of a concrete roadmap that can be hammered out by the end of this round?

Bennett: Well I think what Russia has accomplished in six months is something the US and NATO could not accomplish in six years. In fact Russia did what the people in the world wanted and that was destroy a radical violent savage Islamic Wahhabi army that was destroying the historical sites of the world, raping and pillaging anyone and everyone it could find that was not their Wahhabi ilk, destroying and massacring Christian villages and Russia and President Putin should be applauded. They should be welcomed to Russia, they should be welcomed in the eyes of the world like Roman conquerors returning to, rains of flowers thrown by little children because he has essentially saved the world from savagery.

He went in, he sent the Russian army, he went in and destroyed the ISIS (Daesh) fighters, destroyed their technology, destroyed their funding routes, destroyed their oil smuggling operations and then he also exposed their money supplies, their donors, the countries that were funding them which included the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Turkey and he showed it to the world, he showed it to the people of the world and basically the people of the world backed President Putin and backed the Russian military objective and he has done it in under five months and now he is leaving to return back to Russia.

Press TV: Let me reword my question so that I can get my answer. Now that Russia is pulling out, do you think the pressure that Russia was exerting on the different parties to the Syrian conflict is now removed and hence there is less of an incentive to come up with a lasting solution to the Syrian crisis?

Bennett: Well I think the Syrian crisis solution is going to be achieved because now with Russia removed, the US and the other areas of blocking cannot step in and blame Russia for being an impediment. He has taken that away from them. He has basically said we have stopped the murder and the killing, now we are pulling out so that the conversation can take place. If the conversation stalls, then it shows that they were never serious in the first place and if they try and engage in future military operations, he can step in and stop it, he can step in a second time.

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