US seeking destruction of Syria: Analyst

After an unsuccessful “proxy” war in Syria, the US government has resorted to political ploys to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power, says an American geopolitical analyst.

An internal timeline obtained by the Associated Press revealed on Wednesday that the administration of US President Barack Obama does not foresee Assad stepping down before March 2017.

This means Assad will outlast Obama who is slated to leave office in January 2017. The American president first called for Assad’s removal from power roughly five years ago.

The timeline is reportedly designed based on a UN-endorsed peace plan for the Arab country that was reached in Vienna, Austria, in November.

In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser said that the document’s existence is no surprise as “the United States has been pushing for regime change since 2011 really by hook or by crook, using all means necessary.”

Draitser accused Washington of using militant groups as “proxies” to overthrow the administration of Assad.

“Of course, that has not happened and so the United States has moved to a secondary option for regime change which is basically using the chaos and war in order to force a political dialogue in which the precondition is the removal of Assad or the so-called transition from Assad’s rule,” he added.

The analyst argued that Washington was forced to accept a political solution only after Russia launched its aerial campaign in the Arab country in late September 2015, upon a request from Damascus.

“I think any serious political observer would agree that were it not for Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Syria, the US would not even be willing to go to Vienna, would not be willing to really take part in a substantive political dialogue,” he explained.

However, Draitser welcomed the change of policy, saying that a political dialogue would lay the ground for at the very least a “temporary peace” that the Syrian people deserve after years of conflict.

The founder of stopimperialism.com added that Assad not only is the legal president of his country, he is also “the expression of popular will of the Syrian people.”

“So the question becomes what right does the US or any other government for that matter have to force Assad out of power, or particularly, he is the popularly elected leader,” Draitser said.

“Ultimately, the Unite States wants that destruction of Syria as a state, wants the destruction of Syria as we know it and the removal of Assad as a fundamental part of that,” he concluded.

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