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US training militants in Syria violation of international law: Analyst

A file photo of foreign-backed militants in Syria.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ken O'Keefe, a former US Marine, in London, about a plan by the US and its allies to train the militants operating in Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well, the situation just does not end in Syria. First of all, let’s look at the United States’ latest move, saying now that they are training what they call the more “moderate” elements and of course we have been here before. Isn’t that the United States just wants this to be in constant state of chaos or… how do you see this latest move that is taking place?

O’Keefe: Well, indeed that is the only logical conclusion one can make. If we look at the history of the region, we see chaos is rampant throughout, and in fact we look as bad at the problems might have been in Iraq with Saddam Hussein, we see that under Saddam Hussein there was no al-Qaeda and of course as soon as we invaded and occupied, they were all over the place and that has morphed into another version of al-Qaeda, which is this ISIS, ISIL or whatever creation they have.

We see the same pattern in Libya as well. You know there was no real amount of ISIS or al-Qaeda in Libya; there is now. It is a failed state largely. We see this in Syria, too, and hypocrisy does not even begin to describe what we are witnessing.

I mean we see in Yemen of course that we have a puppet government, which is overthrown effectively by a popular revolt, and in that case, the United States is supporting this puppet and their bedfellows in Saudi Arabia and then we look to Syria, where you actually have a democratically elected leader. And whatever anybody wants to say about the elections in which Bashar al-Assad won the elections, the bottom line is the elections were held, those elections are very, very understandably valid. If there was no Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria, all of us who can think at all know very well what would happen - a vacuum would be created and the chaos would be amplified even further and this is clearly the agenda and you do really need to refer to Oded Yinon’s strategy for Israel in the 1980s to see that there is actually written proof of this very agenda and it is being played out right before our eyes.

Press TV: In the meantime, of course people continue to die. What needs to happen at this point in time? It does not seem that the United States and supporting these radical elements… that they are going to give up although there are supposed to be peace talks up-and-coming. In your perspective, what is it going to take to stop this violence in Syria?

O’Keefe: Well, unfortunately, there is no quick fix. The most important thing that we can do on all levels is seek the truth and understand the truth. We must face it, we must understand it, and with the truth, we can begin a process of effecting change in this world, and one of the things that absolutely needs to happen in order for us to have any chance of a sustainable sane and just world is that international laws is applied.

What is happening right now by any reasonable definition of law is very clear. There is foreign intervention in Syria, we see America openly training, arming and providing support on all different levels to these psychopaths that are foreign nationals and sending them off into a sovereign state that has a democratically elected government and this is clearly a violation of law and those entities which are violating international law must be prosecuted. As long as we have impunity, there is no solution.

AHK/HJL


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