Lebanese Report: Clinton, Petraeus Victims of US Failure in Syria

A Lebanese report described US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former CIA Director David Petraeus, who both resigned their post on the eve of President Obama’s victory in the presidential elections this week, as victims of the US failure in Syria as Washington is struggling to get rid of the quagmire in Syria.

The report was released while Clinton has said she would not serve in a second administration of US President Barack Obama and Petraeus declared his resignation on Friday.

The US failure in Syria and its need to an approach to get out of the Syrian crisis which is becoming another quagmire for Washington’s hawkish foreign policy, similar to Iraq and Afghanistan, is due to the tragic results of the Syrian crisis on the US policy, the Arabic Al-Sharq al-Jadid news agency reported on Saturday.

Clinton and Petraeus were leading the unrests against the Syrian government over the last two years, the report said, and added Clinton led the political and diplomatic front at the UN, united hostile countries against Syria and set up many regional and international gatherings to fuel terrorism and killings and provided backups for rebel groups in Syria.

Petraeus, a senior Pentagon general, devised the strategy of fighting against the Syrian government after the US failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, set up operation rooms and sent officers to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to mobilize intelligence systems of these countries, the report said.

Petraeus had struck some deals with Syria’s Ikhwan Al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) a few months ago to make the armed campaign against the Syrian government “appropriate for international terrorism and al-Qaeda thoughts” with the help of some US regional sponsors to invite the rebels from Lebanon, Jordan, Lybia and other Muslim and Arab countries to Syria.

The intelligence organizations led by Petraeus in Libya supported extremist and Takfiri groups as well as the Muslim Brotherhood who stormed the US embassy and killed Washington’s ambassador to the country, the report said and added that the US failure in Syria and Libya are closely related, because the Muslim Brotherhood is now regarded as a friend of Petraeus which has disturbed his dream of saving the US from the current crisis.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.

The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups battling the President Bashar al-Assad’s government have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

According to the report, material is being stockpiled in Damascus, in Idlib near the Turkish border and in Zabadani on the Lebanese border.

Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons – most bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military in the past – has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month.