US, allies using terrorists as tool to balkanize Syria: Analyst

Having failed to seize control of Syria, the US and its allies have switched to a “plan B” and are using the militants they support in the Arab country to advance their goal of breaking Syria into pieces, an analyst tells Press TV.

Janice Kortkamp, independent researcher and journalist based in the US state of Virginia, told Press TV’s The Debate program on Monday that the US and its allies —including the UK and Saudi Arabia — “were literally fomenting and manufacturing sectarian distrust” and violence in Syria to undermine the Damascus government.

“There have been two plans. Plan A was to take full control of Syria and this is why the political opposition was so supported by the West. And the other plan B — once plan A failed — was to basically balkanize Syria and rip it into small sectarian-based states,” Kortkamp said.

“This is a typical colonial strategy that has been used for a long time. So, Syria had to battle plan A first and then plan B next,” she added. “And this is what is really taking place… the goal is to weaken Syria,” which has been pursued by the pro-Israeli lobby to enable the Tel Aviv regime to “expand in the region and do whatever it wants to do with the Palestinians.”

“And for that goal it was necessary to weaken the whole .... swathes of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon,” the analyst stated.

The vast majority of Syrians, she added, supported the army against “this very obvious and orchestrated regime change coup attempt against the sovereignty of their country.”

“The CIA was training activists from 2006 to 2010 and spent millions of dollars training the so-called activists and journalists to be ready to present all these false stories,” she said.

She lashed out at “the regimes of the West that have been literally ripping the Middle East apart, destroying their economies with sanctions, killing the people and creating a refugee crisis.”

The journalist further said that “the US has to pull out completely from Syria. All the other illegal occupiers, including Turkey and Israel of course have to pull out of Syria."

Kortkamp also labeled Turkey as “a primary supporter" of many terrorist groups in Syria by allowing “mercenary” terrorists to come in through their country into Syria.

PressTV-Syria: Turkish convoy enters Idlib to help militants

Damascus says a Turkish convoy carrying munitions entered northwest Syria to help Takfiri militants who are losing territory amid advances by Syrian troops.

Ian Williams, another US-based analyst joining the show, also criticized the Turkish military involvement in Syria, which he said was aimed at keeping the US-backed Kurdish militants there down.

Turkey “is supporting its allies, is hoping to keep the Kurds down, hoping to support its surrogates in the area,” said Williams.

He said that the US’s plan to set up a joint command center with Turkey to coordinate a so-called safe zone in Syria is aimed at partitioning the Arab country.

“Disintegration of Syria is one of the tragedies,” he said, criticizing Ankara and certain Persian Gulf states for supporting terrorists wreaking havoc in the country.

“The terrorists couldn’t sustain on the road. They need the money from certain Persian Gulf states…They need money from the West. They need money from Turkey. So, this is a conflict which is being funded by people outside who are pouring the fuel and distribute the matches.”

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