News / Interviews

US presence in Syria meant to contain Russia: Analyst

Saturday, 17 June 2017 6:46 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 June 2017 10:12 AM ]

A convoy of the US-led coalition drives in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, June 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The United States has escalated its military intervention in Syria, killing several civilians and soldiers in a recent strike in the Arab country. America has also deployed a new long-range missile launcher to a base in Syria’s al-Tanf City. To discuss the American adventurism in Syria, Press TV has interviewed James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, and Jonathan Fryer, a writer and lecturer.

Jatras said the US was involved in an escalation in Syria because it does not want to allow Russia to score a victory there.

“Syria is something of a symptom or a theater of that struggle [between the US and Russia] and the only reason that [Syrian President Bashar] Assad really needs to go is because ‘we can’t let the Russians win.’ This is all about beating the Russians,” he said on Friday night.

He also said that, “The only reason [why] the Russians are in Syria is because they want to thwart American policy,” resulting in what he said was a zero-sum game.

Jatras also said there were attempts by the American “deep state” to put pressure on President Donald Trump to enact the policy toward Syria that he promised during his election campaign.

“The disaster is not Trump’s election to be US president but the disaster is that the deep state is trying to undermine him and keep him for following policy he promised to have when he was running for president,” he said.

US President Donald Trump walks from Marine One on arrival in the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, DC, June 16, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Fryer, for his part, said, “The positioning of these rocket launchers is more a gesture rather than actually any direct threat to show that America is keeping any eye on what is going on.”

However, he said it was “not at all obvious what strategy,” if any, Washington was following concerning the conflict in Syria.

Fryer said it was a difficult situation and it was not clear how much Donald Trump is in control of things himself.

He ruled out the possibility of any direct confrontation between America and Russia but he predicted a certain extent of confrontation between US and Syrian forces.

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