US preferring not to defeat ISIL in Syria, Iraq: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sabah Jawad, director of the Iraqi Democrats against Occupation from London, to get his take on the stances of the US and Russia in dealing with the Daesh Takfiri group.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: As we did mention over here that efforts against Daesh have somewhat stalled specifically when it comes to Salahuddin province. What to do you make of this new phase that’s going to start?

Jawad: As you said correctly actually, the battle for Salahuddin and the battle for al-Anbar - Ramadi - also have been stalling for some time now. And this is the primarily for the obstruction the Americans have been imposing on the Iraqi government, because they actually didn’t want participation of the popular mobilization forces in Iraq. They want to prolong the battle against Daesh (ISIS), because actually it’s for their benefit to contain ISIS (ISIL) rather than defeat ISIS. And they were talking about thirty years of campaign to get rid of terrorism in Iraq and the area and so on. But the new situation actually has been happening in the Middle East primarily because of the Russian involvement in Syria and the advancement of the Syrian army in many areas of Syria put Daesh and ISIS (ISIL) on defensive and also put the Americans on the defensive as well.

Press TV: Could the involvement of the Russians in the Syrian side give fresh impetus to the Iraqis against Daesh? Will the Iraqis even need the Russians to come in directly?

Jawad: This put actually the Americans on the spot, because the Russian participation actually achieved more results in few days than the entire result achieved by the Americans over a year now. And that put them on the spot actually. They’ve been exposed as they were pretending to fight terrorism with all their allies. They claim to have 60 countries enrolled to fight against terrorism, but most of these countries, who enrolled in this alliance, actually support terrorism and they finance ISIS, and they finance and support other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq as well.

I mean, we know for certain that Qatar, for example, heavily involves in supporting terrorism in the area and Turkey and so on. And they are numbers of the American alliance to fight terrorism. And there is a report actually in Iraq now that the American government is very worried about the possible asking of the Iraqi government of the Russians to participate in the fight against terrorism in Iraq. And they are actually giving concessions, they will turn the blind eye to the participation of the popular mobilization force in the fight in Salahuddin and al-Anbar provinces, because actually they wanted to achieve some kind of results and because of the Russian participation and the advancement of the Syrian army put them on the spot.

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