UN partition proposal for Aleppo seeks to vilify Syria govt., says Analyst

Under circumstances wherein the Syrian army, with support from Russian forces, has been achieving remarkable victories against terrorist groups across the country, especially in Aleppo, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Steffan de Mistura has astonished the world with a new proposal to create an autonomous area in the militant-held eastern Aleppo – an idea that many observers interpret as a last-ditch effort by the West to block the army’s path towards final victory. In this episode of 'The Debate,' Press TV has interviewed Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist from Tampa, and Michael Lane, the founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy in Washington, about the potential intentions behind De Mistura’s proposal.

Michael Lane maintains that Syrian and Russian forces have the upper hand in most areas, and should not therefore be expected to accept such a proposal. He recommended that the UN instead focus its efforts on improving the disastrous humanitarian situation in the conflict zone and let the government deal with the terrorists.

Commenting on what the UN has in mind when it makes such a proposal, Lane opined, "One may wonder why the UN thinks it would get a positive response from Syria on a proposal like this?"

“Russia and Syria are clearly winning militarily. If you were Syria, you would only accept a proposal like this if you were not winning … There's just nothing in this proposal from Syria’s viewpoint other than perhaps an improvement in world opinion. But that's not important to them,” Lane argued.

He further noted that the UN proposal at this juncture is in line with the Western states' smear campaign against the government of Bashar al-Assad and his allies, Russia in particular, especially after their military gains in the battlefield.

“I don't think Syria loses, if they did grab it. And of course they have to be somewhat disingenuous about it. But I don't know that in their attempt to unify the country, they would let something like that get in their way. If they accepted the idea of all the rebels leaving eastern Aleppo in favor of an autonomous region as soon as the area was demilitarized, they could roll in supposedly at the request of the people who are governing the local population and they could take it over and be fully unified without battle, without further destruction, without further humanitarian crisis,” Lane analyzed.

 “The attempt here is to paint them (Syria and Russia) in a bad light. I think they have already painted them in a bad light. I don't think there really is much worse that can be done to Syria and Russia's reputation on this. I think most of the world at this point rightly or wrongly believes that they are just recklessly and probably criminally pursuing urban warfare at the expense of civilians with no thought given to it at all. So, they are really not going to lose anything in the court of public opinion, if they accepted it,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the other panelist on the program, Scott Rickard said that in his view, by offering such a proposal, the Western countries and the UN are seeking to create a kind of misinformation campaign against the Syrian government. "They want to ultimately portray it (the Syrian government) as the enemy of peace, and at the same time sell a justified picture of themselves to the public opinion as the guardians of humanity."

“Let's be clear here. This is nothing more than a disinformation campaign … This is almost the last attempt by the Western media to vilify once again Syria about not having any hospitals, bombing medical facilities and going after innocent individuals,” he underlined.

Rickard said that this news [de Mistura's proposal] has been widely publicized in the Western media for the past week. “It is trying to change the minds of individuals based upon deliberate misinformation. Once again, by making a proposal - supposedly a humanitarian proposal - de Mistura is basically offering something that is obviously unacceptable and will be rejected. But [as part of] the disinformation effort, it will look as if they're not even accepting an opportunity to call a truce."

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