Syria military gains to impact peace talks: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Sara Flounders, a member of the International Action Center, in New York, about new gains by the Syrian army forces against Takfiri Daesh militants at a major military air base in the northern province of Aleppo.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about this very significant military gain?

Flounders: Well this is an important military gain, it certainly seems, and it is based on the ability though for two and a half years Syrian forces to hold out under the most difficult, difficult conditions.

So the new aid that is coming forth from Russia, from Iran and the continuing aid and the continuing aid also from Hezbollah but combined with the Syrian determination not to give in, four and a half years, under the most difficult circumstances, they have been resisting, and both militarily resisting and also resting in ways of defending the cohesion of the country, the determination to keep Syria together as a multi-national, multi-religious, multi-ethnic state that very much goes hand in hand with the military victory because in war, morale counts for as they say 90 percent.

Press TV: And obviously all of this is happening as we are going to be going to a second round apparently of Vienna talks over this crisis in Syria. How do you feel about the others, who are around this negotiating table, the likes of Saudi Arabia and Turkey and of course the Americans themselves? What are their intentions do you think? Do you think the Russians and the Iranians are essentially winning this battle as we now see these major military victories?

Flounders: Well what happens on the ground will have a big impact on what happens in Vienna because these peace talks all along were really an effort by the West, by the US and also Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan to impose a political solution on Syria that excluded the Syrian government and excluded the will of the Syrian people.

So the aid, the military victory, the change in what is happening on the ground will certainly change the discussions in Vienna and already have, the right of course  of Syria to participate and of Russia and Iran to participate in these talks that is important and a diplomatic solution to be reached. But it is important to know and to see how much these talks, what their original intentions was, which was to create a government that was really a creation of the West and Syria by resisting that and continuing to resist and to hold out for their right and the right of the Syrian people to be part of any solution not is really defending their sovereignty.

So I think that is what we are going to see in the future in Vienna because what is happening on the ground, the military measures are really moving forward and having a big impact against forces that literally are mercenary and terrorist reactionary forces armed by the West, equipped by them and given full political support and that is everything from the Daesh forces to al-Nusra and the whole rest of them.

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