Nothing wrong with Russia using Iranian airbase: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Steven Kelley, a former CIA/NSA contractor, about the United States describing as “unfortunate but not surprising” Russia’s announcement of using an Iranian airbase to launch airstrikes against terrorists in Syria.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: What is it about the regional cooperation, be it between Iran and Iraq or Iran, Syria and Russia, to fight Daesh that irks the US so much?

Kelley: Well it is a perfectly legitimate point. Obviously there is nothing wrong at all for Russia to be accessing these bases to perform legitimate campaigns against the enemy. So certainly the United States who is operating illegally from so many different locations inside of conquered countries and even Syria at this time, for them to be saying anything at all is hypocritical. When they say that it is “unfortunate”, I have to wonder why. Why is this unfortunate? It seems to be very effective.

Press TV: How does this cooperation - the use of an Iranian airbase according to Russian officials, also the use of an Iraqi airbase to strike targets in Syria - affect the war and the move to liberate specifically when we look at Aleppo?

Kelley: I think that Aleppo is a very, very important issue. But I think that if you look at both these situations with the flights out of Baghdad as well as the flights out of Iran, each is different, but at the same time, each poses significant issues for the United States.

Obviously with respect to Iran, this works from a political rhetoric standpoint where they can say, ‘Look, there is this axis of evil operating together, we told you so’. This is why they say they are not surprised. But [when it comes to] flying out of Baghdad, they are not so happy to even mention that that is taking place. Because that is a major slap in the face and a blow to their ego with respect to that. This is a country that they feel they have conquered and they should have as a vassal state and here now Russia is more welcome than they are. So that is a political problem.

With respect to Aleppo, and this is a very, very serious situation, and it is not just Aleppo. I just was talking to a friend of mine in Qudsaya today and they are having issues with the so-called moderate forces that control – this is a suburb out of Damascus - and the National Defense Forces. I believe because they are so emboldened by the advances of the Syrian Arab Army, [they] are starting to basically attack a lot of the so-called moderate forces and this is very disturbing for the civilians. The good thing is that this will all be over soon and God willing Aleppo will soon be liberated and I would encourage the Russians and the Syrian Arab Army and their allies to please do it as soon as possible and not even think about these fake negotiations that are being used to distort the reality and somehow work in the side of Daesh.

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