Calling Russian air strikes in Aleppo “barbarism,” U.N. Amb. Susan Power accused Russia of ignoring the Sept. 10 ceasefire between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov hoped the truce would last but was shocked when U.S.-led coalition forces bombed Syrian forces Sept. 17, in effect sabotaging the fragile ceasefire. When Lavrov called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Sept. 17, Power started her tirade against Russia, essentially repeating the Saudi talking points on Syria. While Syria remains a U.N.-member sovereign state, Power talks like Syria has no right to defend itself against a determined Saudi-Turkey-U.S. proxy war. “Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war,” insisted Power in the Security Council. “What Russia is doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism.”
U.S. officials want the world to think that the rebels they support in Aleppo and other parts of Syria have a right to be there. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have a big disagreement over what constitutes terrorists in Syria. Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed opposition forces like the Free Syrian Army or Syrian Democratic Forces are terrorists. “Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” Power told the Security Council. Power doesn’t admit that the U.S. supports rebel forces seeking to topple al-Assad’s Syrian government. Power mirrors the White House position of backing the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad. Once the U.S. breached the truce Sept. 17, Putin and al-Assad decided to finish off Saudi-Turkey-U.S.- backed rebels groups in Aleppo.
Power gives the Saudi High Negotiation Commission propaganda that Syrian opposition groups have a right to topple al-Assad’s government. Lavrov did his best seeking a truce, knowing that U.S.-backed rebel groups continued to regroup in Aleppo under the pretence of allowing humanitarian aid to reach some 250,000 civilians caught in the crossfire. Power knows that Kerry had plenty of time to adopt the Russian view that al-Assad has a right to defend his sovereignty and territorial integrity. While Kerry came close to leaving al-Assad put, he couldn’t confront Saudi Arabia, insisting the al-Assad must leave Damascus. When Saudi’s High Negotiation Commission, led by 56-year-old U.S.-educated Adel al-Jubeir, met in Geneva Aug. 26, it insisted that al-Assad must leave Damascus. Lavrov bent over backwards to accommodate the Sept. 10 ceasefire, only to watch the U.S. renege.
Taking Aleppo would be an important step for al-Assad to purge Syria of Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed insurgents. U.S. officials can’t exempt their own brand of terrorists from Syria, preferring to target the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra Front. U.S. officials want to pretend that their personally backed rebels are exempted from Syrian and Russian attacks. Since starting air strikes Sept. 28, 2015, Russia has targeted Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed rebel groups unlawfully occupying parts of Syria. Power’s incendiary rhetoric against Moscow only makes a bad situation worse. Moscow wants U.S. officials to acknowledge that al-Assad has a right to go after any opposition group seeking to topple his government, whether or not backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey or any other government. Bombing rebel strongholds, no matter how barbaric, is al-Assad’s right.
Russia and Syrian bombing in Aleppo is designed to show Saudi-Turkey-U.S. opposition forces that foreign terrorists seeking to topple al-Assad’s government must get out. Responding to the attacks, Geneva-based U.N. Peace Envoy Staffan de Mistura expressed pessimism about the war. De Mastura warned that Syria faced a “grinding” fight in Aleppo without any guarantee of victory. Showing his bias against the Syrian regime, de Mistura practically confessed he’s on the Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed proxy war side to topple al-Assad. No one in Geneva has confronted the Saudis for their insistence that the war goes on as long as al-Assad clings to power. If Obama, Kerry and Power really cared about civilian casualties and the cost on the war on Europe and neighboring Mideast countries, they’d confront the Saudis to stop the destructive nearly six-year-old proxy war.
Like any other U.N. member-state, al-Assad has a right to defend his sovereignty and territorial integrity. Watching other Mideaat dictators fall like dominos during the Saudi-funded Arab Spring in 2011, al-Assad didn’t roll over, staging a fierce fight with his Russian and Iranian allies to stay in power. If the U.S. and European Union really wants to see the Syrian War end, they need to force Saudi Arabia to stand down. As long as the Saudis, Turks and U.S. keep funding and supplying arms to Syrian rebels, the war will rage on. Al-Assad, Putin and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei show no signs of letting Saudi’s Wahhabi Sunni rebels topple Damascus. Whatever atrocities and collateral damage exist in Aleppo, it’s the Saudis choice. “A so-called military solution is impossible, including Aleppo,” said de Mistura, repeating the Saudi talking points that the war won’t end until al-Assad leaves Damascus.
