US aims to turn Syria into failed state

An analyst says the US and its NATO and regional allies, using extremist Salafist terrorists, aim to turn Syria into a failed state like they did with Libya and Iraq.

A UN investigation into the Syrian crisis showed the violence has reached new heights. A political solution has been urged. Reports by human rights authorities have surfaced that reveal foreign-backed militants of the Free Syrian Army have been executing their captives in makeshift courts without due process.

Meanwhile Britain has just sent 30 million dollars worth of weapons to these al-Qaeda-linked terrorist elements and a Jordanian MP has revealed that the US is indeed providing equipment to al-Qaeda in Syria.

Both sides have been accused by the UN of failing to protect civilians caught up in the conflict. The Syrian representative at the UN meeting was disappointed that the report ignored the geopolitical situation in the region.

Press TV has interviewed Edward Corrigan, the human rights attorney from Ontario about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Makeshift courts executing captives without giving them due process. Are you surprised in any way that this is what things have lead to?

Corrigan: Unfortunately it’s not a surprise because the whole situation has degenerated completely.

It has been I guess an intervention of a lot of the neighboring powers backed by the Americans and NATO, which are essentially attacking. They’re bringing in Salafist Sunni extremists and fundamentalists from all over the Middle East and sending them into Syria.

There has been a massive escalation in terms of the types of weaponry that is being provided to the rebels that are attacking the government and there have been reports that the vast majority of the people who are actually fighting the Syrian government are in fact not Syrians. So it’s essentially a foreign intervention or invasion in Syria.

The rebels are taking a very extreme position – they’re attacking Christian minorities; they’re attacking Shia Alawites, which are of course prevalent – there is a large number of them in Syria and they are tied closely to the regime. In fact even Sunnis who are not supporting the Sunni Salafist fundamentalist viewpoint would be attacked, too.

I’m also sure the Syrian government has committed its fair share of atrocities as war is not very nice and there is a massive amount of destructive attacks on civilians. Of course, civilians are going to get caught up in the crossfire. People sometimes call them collateral damage.

But there is ethnic cleansing of Christians in certain areas that are held – they’re being targeted by the rebels and these makeshift courts have got no legal standing and actually this type of activity constitutes a war crime and crime against humanity.

Press TV: Lakhdar Ibrahimi (UN Mission Head of Syria) is saying that the situation in Syria could escalate to become that of another Somalia. Do you think that the US and its Western allies have taken that into account when it continues to fund and support and train these insurgents?

Corrigan: I have a cynical view. I think they have taken that into account, but I think that’s actually the objective.

They want to destroy Syria as a stable state and they want to replace it with a failed state in its place.

I think what was done in Iraq – there was a destruction of a very advanced stable Arab country – it had very good infrastructure; the best education system in the Arab world; best rights for women. It did have some problems, but it did have relative peace within the various sectarian factions within the country. But they destroyed that.

And they destroyed Iraq in the process and I think when George Bush said “Mission accomplished,” the mission was to destroy Iraq, not to actually replace it or bring democracy or anything else and I think they’re trying to bring the same model… the same model they used in Libya.

Libya has also had its infrastructure destroyed… bringing in Sharia law; attacking what was sort of a balance between Islam and democracy and nationalism. But it was working, there wasn’t very much human rights problems. The Libyans got the benefit of their rich oil resources. All of that is gone, a lot of infrastructure has been destroyed and now I think the same process is taking place in Syria.

Press TV: There are serious human rights abuses taking place on Syrian soil. Specifically as you mentioned, these makeshift courts do amount to crimes against humanity.

Do you see the International Criminal Court stepping up their game with regards to this or for so long as they are answerable to the governments like that of the US, nothing concrete is going to happen?

Corrigan: Unfortunately, I don’t think anything concrete is going to happen. There is more likely that the Syrian regime, which has been defending itself will probably be brought up before the International Court of Justice and may be facing war crimes allegations.

But I really believe that the rebels are probably doing far worse in terms of targeting the civilians and many of them aren’t even from Syria and it’s been an intervention from Turkey, from the Saudis and also from Qatar. They’ve gathered these Islamic Muslim Sunni Salafists from all over the place; a lot of the same people who were brought in to overthrow the Libyan regime are now actually fighting in Syria.

And I think there is a very real risk that this is going to break the fragile balance between the confessional groups between Shia and Sunni and others including the Christians in Lebanon.

This will also result in a lot of wanton destruction, which has already spread to some extent from Syria into Lebanon – there has been shelling of Shia villages in Lebanon.

There has been some response. There is definitely an attempt I think on the part of some people to expand the conflict.