US not serious in stopping ISIL

Press TV has conducted an interview with Arthur Olivier, a writer and political commentator in Los Angeles, to discuss Iran Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan’s remarks, questioning the United States and its regional allies for their fight against terrorists, ISIL in particular.

The following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: We have heard about how the US, of course they always say US and it regional allies, they are trying to maintain ISIL’s presence. What gains would the US have from that?

Olivier: Well, none at all. If you look at who originally funded ISIL, it was the Saudis and the Qataris and if United States was serious about stopping the gains that ISIL has traded, they would just simply pick up the phone, call up the ambassadors from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and say stop funding ISIL and without the funds coming in, the soldiers would go home and the whole thing would be over.

Press TV: And of course we have to take a look at Syria in this picture because the US just as recent as a few weeks back, even though the news was up before that, is training this so-called fighters over in Jordan; 5,000 per month up to 15,000 as their predictions for the next few months, to fight against the Syrian government forces. So would it be easy for them to merge these fighters with ISIL terrorists who are fighting in Syria, but then conclude that the US is behind both of these terrorists who are operating in both countries?

Olivier: Well, when you look at ultimately who funds these organizations, you know it is the same players. And it was the same players that funded the organization before ISIL that were fighting against the Syrian government. It goes back to the conflict with the Pars gas facility in the Persian Gulf, where they were going to run a line through Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and they were going to bid all the natural gas for Europe. The Syrians declined that proposal and then instead they accepted one from Iran to run it through Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and down in the Mediterranean Sea and come out in Greece and end up in Europe. So that is the major players; at one side you have Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who want the line to go through their countries, and on the other side, you have the other countries that want it to go through. So you can see in these conflicts that on one side of course you have Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and on the other side you have the players that are funding ISIL.