US no longer dominant power in Mideast: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Richard Becker, a member of the ANSWER Coalition in San Francisco, to ask for his take on recent remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said a political settlement in Syria must not be dependent on the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you think about the United States double standard when it comes to dealing with the two countries of Iraq and Syria?

Becker: Well, the US double standard is actually quite breathtaking. I mean it is often hard to believe the positions that US government takes when it comes to human rights or intervention in other countries and well the United States criticizes and sometimes condemns other countries for intervention which is actually legitimate intervention such as the Russian intervention and assistance to the government in Damascus requested by the legitimate government of Damascus. The US government feels free to send its military forces, to send its drones into Pakistan, into Somalia and Afghanistan, invaded Iraq I mean etc, etc. So we have this, a truly breathtaking double standard that the US expresses sometimes to the point where it is almost hard to believe. But it is not hard to believe from the point of view of what they are really doing is not pursuing so much a double standard in one respect as pursuing with their view in Washington is their own interest regardless of whether they violate the sovereignty of other countries, invade other countries, support regimes which are crushing human rights such as in Saudi Arabia etc.

Press TV: We would deem that the United States and its allies’ main priority right now with the spread of Daesh is trying to you know battle with Daesh and stop them from their crimes and atrocities. What is the priority of the United States when it comes to its foreign policy with regards to countries like Iraq and Syria?

Becker: Well, we can tell that the US policy has become, to a large degree, a confused policy, a contradictory policy and that is a reflection of conflicts within the regime in the United States both within the military between civilian and military, security leaders and so forth. But the United States has had a long term policy; a long term aim was back to the end of World War II, 70 years ago, and that is dominate this entire region because of its key strategic position as a crossroads of the world between Africa, Asia and Europe and for controlling resources and particularly the oil resources of the region. But because of what the United States did, what the Bush administration, the neocons did in 2003, they have created, brought in to be in a situation and create the conditions for the present situation that they no longer are able to regulate or control. So we have this conflict, why not? Certainly, the underlying aim remains to try to be the dominant power in the Middle East and the US is quite still the dominant military power in the world, but it has clearly lost the ability to govern and regulate affairs in the region.

Press TV: Talking about the US being the dominant power in the world, how does the US foreign policy set a president for other countries who actually follow suit, we are seeing in Turkey doing business with Daesh and getting away with that?

Becker: Well, clearly I mean if you look at what the US policy is, you will not follow that as a guide. I mean although here in the United States, US policy in the mainstream media is always glorified that you know the US policy makers are always on the side of the angles as they say and always doing the right thing in other countries and, meanwhile, if they make mistakes, they certainly had good intentions. And of course that is not true they have intentions which are the intentions of power, and prophet and empire and so you know if that is the leading world power does that, certainly other countries particularly those allied with the United States feel that they can do the same thing too. So we see what Turkey has been doing; we see what Saudi Arabia has been doing as allies of the United States along with the formal colonizing powers in the region, Britain and France in particular. And they are all pursuing their own interest that they pay no attention to international law unless they want to use it against an enemy, someone they perceived to be an enemy, and they pursue their own interest and those interests, as I said, are for the US and also for Britain and France the interest of empire.   

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