US seeks to keep violence simmering in Syria: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, about Russia accusing the United States of failing to fulfill its obligations under a ceasefire agreement in Syria.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: As always Staffan de Mistura is optimistic but how optimistic can we really be if the US is not cooperating?

Jatras: Well it is hard to be optimistic. I think all of us would like to see the ceasefire works especially if it means that humanitarian aid can get through to the people who desperately need it but the indications are not promising at this point.

The tough part of this has always been the disengagement of all these so-called moderate resistance groups or opposition groups from Jabhat al-Nusra, I guess it calls itself now Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which is essentially al-Qaeda even though they claim to have broken that link and even to some extent to Daesh without which, without cooperating with these groups, these so-called moderates really do not amount to much of anything and I do not even know if the United States has that much influence over these so-called clients of ours because essentially they share the same radical Wahhabist ideology as the people we designate as terrorists. Why would they break their links with al-Nusra?

Press TV: If the United States does not have direct influence over these groups, it certainly does have influence over those who fund and support these groups, doesn’t it?

Jatras: If you are pointing to countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the [Persian] Gulf states, sometimes I wonder who has got influence over whom. I often have the impression that it is Washington that acts almost as a client of these regional actors rather than the other way around that we do what Riyadh demands not the other way around.

Press TV: But certainly this has turned into a failed policy, hasn’t it, on the part of President Obama in the sense that he wanted President Assad out at one point, he seems to have given up on that, now the priority seems to at least be Daesh at least in public statements, but I wonder going forward then how all of this unravel do you think when it comes to this ceasefire or future peace talks?

Jatras: Well of course it has been a failure for the past five years and I am not sure that the administration has given up on the idea of regime change. It seems to me right now what they are trying to do is keep the things simmering and the opposition at least alive in some sense until they hope Hillary Clinton becomes president and she wants to wade back into the war forcefully if she happens to take office, so we will see.  

They may have quieted down a bit about demanding ‘Assad must go’ as unrealistic as that is but I do not think they have given up on that. For the short-term, the real question is going to be whether some kind of, at least a semblance of a ceasefire can take place and allow the humanitarian aid to get through but the real question I think is still ultimately going to be military - is Aleppo liberated by the government forces? If that happens, that would be the real game changer.

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