Sun Feb 5, 2012 7:24PM
Interview with Ralph Schoenman, author and political commentator
Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria calling for Syrian President Bashar al Assad to resign and hand over power to opposition leaders.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Ralph Schoenman, author and political commentator, to share his opinion on this issue.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Press TV: Tell us about the significance of what is taking place in Russia and Chinese veto on this UN draft resolution on Syria?
Schoenman: Well it is very important that those vetoes have taken place for the simple reason that what is at work here is an attempt to hijack the United Nations as it has been so many times and deploy as a cover for naked intervention on the part of the CIA and the Mossad and of the imperial forces of capitalist west.
The question here is not that there is a mass movement in Syria. It is not a question of there being wide spread opposition to the government of Basher al-Assad. The issue is that the armed intervention on the part of what is called the Free Syrian Army has been well documented as an operation of both the Qatari and Arab League front spokespeople for United States and NATO and Israel.
We have documented this, the Chinese and Russian representatives have stated very clearly. I quote: “We are concerned with the absolutely unrealistic provision expecting that the government in Syria withdraw from cities and towns exactly when sponsored armed groups are taking over quarters of those cities and towns”.
“We are not friends or allies of President Assad” said the Russian representative, “we stick to our responsibilities as permanent members of the Security Council and by definition we do not engage in the domestic affairs of member states”, concretely as has been sided in wide spread US publications including the Washington Post and others.
What is taking place on the ground right now in Damascus is intervention by sponsored forces. Quote: “Iskenderun is the seed of the Free Syrian Army, the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. French and British Special Forces are on the ground. CIA and special operations of United States are providing the communications equipment, intelligence and arms, instructing the fighters in avoiding the concentration of Syrian soldiers”.
“This is armed intervention on the part of the United States, Britain and Special Forces, it is not even disguised that they are using the Turkish army as a support instrument, unmarked NATO planes or the Turkish military borders and bases close to Iskenderun on the Syrian border are delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals and volunteer soldiers” from a statement of a former CIA agent, Philip Giraldi that I have cited before on Press TV.
The context here is very clear. The United Nations both with respect to Syria and with respect to Iran is used as a bully platform for imperialism propaganda to whip up a hysteria to entitled armed intervention and what is called regime change, openly declared as such by Obama only ten days ago, regime change in Syria.
Press TV: So what is the stance right now then based on what you have just said and also looking at the veto that has just taken place? So does that mean that Washington backs off or changes its techniques now? Now what happens? Now that the Russians and the Chinese have stood firm in front of what the US was trying to do? What do you think is next?
Schoenman: Well what they will do now is stage another operation in Damascus and then go back to the United Nations again with an emergency demand and once they do not succeed with this, they would then attempt to do what they did in Libya which is to operate on their own, using the charter of United Nations as a pretext or cover.
This is a propaganda exercise for imperial intervention on the ground. They do not care about the fate of the population in terms of democracy or rights or bloodshed. On the contrary the record in Afghanistan and in Iraq and in Libya is overwhelmingly clear.
Once again I would like to point out that what was vetoed here was initiated by Qatar and the regime of Qatar was a vehicle for the Arab League resolution with respect to Libya and it is playing the same role and relation to Syria.
What this means is that these country selling regimes serve as instruments for mobilizing United Nations cover for operations that are intended to destabilize and overthrow governments not sufficiently compliant or submissive to imperial aims in the region which are the break up countries, seize their oil and natural resources and impose hegemony over the oil resources and other resources of Central Asia and the larger Middle East.
Those are the issues; those of stakes, the targeting of Assad and the targeting of Iran as well are intergrowth in the imperial agenda of war, predation and enveloping the globe in an even larger and expended conflict than we see at the moment. When Russia and China veto these resolutions they perform a sensual service with the principals of national independence and sovereignty and defending people and nations against imperial plunder.
Press TV: Well Mr. Schoenman, let’s talk about the US basically not getting what they wanted. Is this a sign that the Washington’s power is veining in the United Nations and in the international arena in general, your take on that?
Schoenman: Well again most of the countries that are member states of United Nations have a class structure parallel to that in the capitalist state of United States and Europe. In the instance where China and Russia are vetoing these resolutions, are reflection of the fact that both Russia and China well understand that this agenda, this war agenda is also aimed at them. It is also aimed at any country that has its own national interests, its own aspirations to develop its resources, its own need to defend its people against exploitation by imperial behemoth.
So the failures as you say to succeed in getting these resolutions through the Security Council are a welcome advance. But it should not lead us to think for a moment that the propaganda exercise will be curtailed on the part of the United States and its say traps. It will again go back to the United Nations in one form or another and it would then have an assembly of Nations under their tour leads that would actually escalate the military intervention and hijack this movement in Syria and pursue their agenda of overthrowing the government in Damascus and going on to attack Iran.
That’s the agenda that they have, the UN is only a cat’s paw in this process and the opposition a part of not only people of the world but nation states is essential Russia and China are to be supported in the resistance to these war plots that are escalating.
AHK/VG/JR
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Monday, February 6th 2012 at 8:23AM
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