Lebanon targeted for anti-Daesh stance: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, an analyst, in Atlanta, to ask for his insight on the activities of Takfiri Daesh terrorists in the Middle East, including a recent bombing in Lebanon.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: ISIS (Daesh) has claimed responsibility for the twin bomb blasts and it said it’s in retaliation for Lebanon’s support of President Assad in Syria. Doesn’t it surprise you that ISIS and the Western leaders who are right now in Syria and are looking for toppling Assad have the same common goal?

Dean: They certainly do and of course our audience here in alternative media knows when we say ISIS, we mean the US coalition, because you got Turkey… [Persian] Gulf states and the US and of course Israel is not a member… are some of the primary people backing ISIL.

Well, I think what we saw here today is the third leg of a triple play of offense against the Syrian, Russian and Iranian… that’s cleaning out the terrorists in Syria.

You had the Russian plane going down in Sinai, which all people today have concluded… all the experts that we know were on the scene saw air-to-air missile damage right away. None of that which has been reported in the media… because the only place that an air-to-air missile could have come from was the large military exercises that were going on in Negev desert in southern Israel.

So, that was a payback to Russia. Yesterday, we had Damascus either bombed or cruise missiled, because we thought the Russians had air superiority in terms of planes and of course, Israel does not publically have cruise missiles.

And today, sadly we saw Hezbollah getting some payback also. This one was very nasty, because it was called what we call a double-tap bombing; this first one went off and then after – which always happens – these wonderful people rush in, civilians to try to help the wounded – and then a second bomber came in and killed a lot of them.

So, what you saw today was the third stroke of a triple payback, a terrorist counter-offensive against the success of the Russian, Syrian and Iranian campaign against ISIL.

Press TV: We’re seeing this ISIS – what we’ve also known as Daesh Takfiri terrorists and it’s known is Western media as the Islamic State – targeting all these Muslim countries. It’s targeting Syria, it’s targeting Lebanon, it’s all over the place, and there’s a lot of fear being propagated and then it comes to mind that ‘OK, first the bogeyman was Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda now is this new ISIS.’ What is going to happen and where is this going to go?

Dean: Well, we think the strategy that we’re seeing evolve it’s they’re going to try to somehow drag this thing out and figure out some way to get casualties against the Russians, because body bags going home always make the home folks unhappy about the engagement. And trying to make this, we’ve heard people hint that this could be Russia’s Vietnam. But Russia is not in here alone, like the US was. The Iraqis are helping, the Iranians are there, they have support.

So, they’re trying to drag the thing out and there’s a race on now. Saudi Arabia is trying to flow reinforcements into Syria. We’re worried about… the TOW missiles have already gone in, and we’re concerned to see whether they’re going to get them advanced air missiles to try to take down Russian planes.

And that could be quite an escalation, because they would have to get those missiles from NATO or Western stockpiles. And that would be a direct attack on Russia itself if they did that.

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