‘Assad stands in way of Western interests’

An interview with Omar Nashabe, a journalist, author and political commentator, and Ian Williams, senior analyst at Foreign Policy in Focus discusses the dire situation in Syria. 

Nashabe believes Western countries’ strategy in Syria is to protect their own interests in the Middle East with the primary core objective of removing President Bashar al-Assad.

He says President Assad endangers US interests in the region and, by supporting the resistance movement, he threatens the security of Israel which is of key concern for Western governments.

“The Syrian regime is a legitimate regime. It is as legitimate as other Arab regimes and the only significant difference is that the Syrian regime is the only Arab regime that refused to sign a peace deal with Israel and continued to support the armed resistance for the liberation of Palestine and for the return of the refugees,” he said.

This comes as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, has warned of plots by the US, Saudi Arabia and their regional allies to partition Syria in order to serve the Israeli regime’s interests in the Middle East.

The commentator further mentioned after the Daesh Takfiri terrorists’ defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Americans have a feeling of “unease,” adding that they are trying to push the battle to eastern Syria which would suit them better strategically.

“They [the Americans] feel they are losing ground and that they will lose their position in setting the future of the region so I think they believe it would be better as part of their strategy to push Daesh to move to eastern Syria. In that way they can concentrate on the battle in Syria to remove the Syrian regime,” he stated.

Nashabe further noted the recent events in the Middle East all point out to a “bleak” future and to more escalation and violence in the region.

“If the regime in Syria falls, there is no chance other than Daesh and extremist fundamentalist terrorist groups to take over,” he said.

The commentator also argued Syria is a “sovereign nation” which needs to resolve its own problems without any interference from outside forces.

However, he said, if the Western powers and their regional allies – namely Saudi Arabia and Turkey – keep sending weapons and money to disrupt the situation in Syria, the people cannot have the opportunity to determine their own future.

Meanwhile, the other panelist on Press TV’s program, Ian Williams said the Western countries do not have a strategy in Syria, adding that only Russia has a strategy which is to keep President Assad in power and thereby maintain its presence on the Mediterranean.

He is also of the opinion that Daesh is a terrifying regime, it is barbaric, savage and pre-medieval but it is not a terrorist organization.

According to the analyst, the real victims of the situation in Syria are the innocent people and nobody has a strategy to deal with it.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.