US policies toward Syria ‘incoherent’: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed James Jatras, a former us senate foreign policy analyst in Washington, to discuss Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call on the US to join the fight on the Daesh terrorist group in Syria.

Following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: Looking at what the Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, he has made all these statements; they sound good but if the US is not on board it is not going to work, is it?

Jatras: It is going to be very difficult to be sure. It is amazing how incoherent American policy is here. We are seeing on the one hand we are opposed to the ISIL, but we do not want to benefit Assad and we warn the Russian that that is a bad idea. At least those two things are complementary, that if you are opposed to ISIL, it benefits Assad. Well, that actually makes some sense.

The American position is we do not like ISIL, we do not like Assad. Well, that is pretty much the choice; it is either [and] or; it is one or the other and it is very unclear who the American officials think the possible replacement for Assad would be. We recently had General David Petraeus calling for America to ally with Al Qaeda, if you can believe that, against ISIL! This is just days after the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Press TV: Call it coincidence or not, you have a refugee crisis that is going on right now and one of the things that Valdimir Putin said is we have got to attack the problem at the root of it and he said that if we really go after these terrorists in form of a broad, anti-terrorist coalition, then we can be successful. Do you think that there is going to be a response coming from some of the European countries that are involved in this war like France and the UK?

Jatras:  There are indications that some of the European countries are coming around closer to the Russian positions than to the American positions for precisely that reason. They are the ones that are experiencing this flood of refugees, plus a lot of economic migrants that are mixed in together. But let’s face it, having broken countries like Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan cannot bode anything well for Europe and I think some of the Europeans are beginning to wake up and smell the coffee.

Unfortunately, a lot of people in Washington really don’t care; they are still stuck on their fantasies about waving their magic wands and having the events follow whatever dreams they may have in mind.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk