NATO Powers Move to Exploit Refugee Crisis to Intensify Bombing of Syria
By Alex Lantier <
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/alex-lantier>
Global Research, September 08, 2015
World Socialist Web Site
<
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/07/syri-s07.html> 7 September 2015
*Even as tens of thousands of Syrians flee to Europe, the NATO powers are
proposing to step
<
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643#>
up
the bombing of their war-torn country and the drive for regime change in
Syria.*
According to a report in the *Sunday Times*, British Prime Minister David
<
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643#>Cameron
is seeking the support of sections of the Labour Party for a plan to
address the migrant crisis that involves bombing Syria and destroying the
regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The plan would be voted upon in
the British Parliament in October.
Yesterday Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, demanded “air
strikes and other British military assistance to create secure and safe
enclaves” in Syria. This would mean bombing Syria and seizing its
territory, which would be an aggressive attack on Syria and an act of war.
Nonetheless, British officials rushed to support Lord Carey’s proposal.
“We’ve got to defeat these criminal gangs who trade
<
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643#>
in
human misery and risk people’s lives and kill people. You’ve got to deal
with the problem at the source, which is this evil Assad regime and the
[Islamic State (IS) militia] terrorists,” declared UK Chancellor of the
Exchequer George Osborne.
Osborne’s statement is the height of political cynicism. It is the US and
NATO-backed intervention in Syria, along with the financing
<
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643#>
of
Islamic fundamentalist organizations by their allies in the Gulf
monarchies, which created the conditions for the emergence of ISIS. Civil
war has been deliberately stoked as part of a policy of undermining and
overthrowing the Assad government.
Now, as tens of thousands of Syrian refugees stream into Europe, the NATO
powers intend to exploit the crisis to intensify their drive for regime
change in Syria, which will only force more Syrians to flee their country.
London’s aggressive posture received support from Paris, after French
President François Hollande proposed “to neutralize” Assad at an
ambassador’s meeting in Paris last month. A top secret military meeting at
the Elysée presidential palace on Friday reportedly discussed France taking
on the role of a “team player” in a US-led coalition to carry
<
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643#>
out
air strikes in Syria.
Speaking to *Le Monde,* French military sources indicated that they
expected they would have US military support for a war for regime change in
Syria. “The Americans have officially declared that they are in this for
the long term, with an aerial campaign that will last at least three
years,” one official declared.
French opposition politicians made tactical criticisms of Hollande’s
proposal, indicating that they would prefer integrating Russian and Iranian
forces into war planning in Syria. They also indicated that they wanted to
avoid a re-play of the situation in September 2013, when Paris aligned
itself with Washington to push for war in Syria, only to find itself
humiliated when the Obama administration decided not to attack Syria and
called off the war without consulting Paris.
If an intervention is going to take place, it requires a broader agreement
with partners besides the United States. Russia and Iran must be
reintegrated. France must get back to an independent policy in Syria. The
last time we spoke about strikes, we were pretty aligned [on Washington],”
declared former conservative French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
The military escalation not only threatens more mass carnage and social
devastation in Syria, but a direct clash between nuclear-armed powers, as
Washington threatens to destroy the Syrian regime and Moscow considers
launching a war to defend Assad, a key Russian ally in the region.
To say we’re ready to do this today—so far it’s premature to talk about
this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and
training soldiers with our weapons,” Russian President Vladimir Putin
declared on Friday during an economic forum in Vladivostok.
Putin also indicated, however, that Moscow could support negotiations that
could lead to a political settlement in Syria and possibly the stepping
down of Assad. “In general, the understanding is that this uniting of
efforts in fighting terrorism should go in parallel to some political
process in Syria itself,” he said. “And the Syrian president agrees with
that, all the way down to holding early elections, let’s say, parliamentary
ones, establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing
them into governing.
Washington quickly moved to criticize attempts by Moscow to boost its
influence in Syria. On Friday, US intelligence officials claimed that
Russian troops were building an air base near the coastal Syrian city of
Latakia, from which they could launch air strikes.
As part of its alliance with Syria stretching back to Soviet times, Russia
has for decades operated a naval base at the nearby port city of Tartus.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian
counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to complain of indications of
an “imminent enhanced Russian military build-up” in Syria.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-powers-move-to-exploit-refugee-crisis-to-intensify-bombing-of-syria/5474643
Received on Wed Sep 23 2015 - 02:24:13 EDT