‘America preparing military intervention in Syria’
Damascus is criticizing the US for sending an envoy to Cairo's Arab League discussions about ending the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. London-based political analyst Chris Bambery says the US is preparing for a military intervention in Syria.
According to Barbery, sanctions against Syria are only the beginning of Western intervention. "The key ally in this enterprise, Turkey, has been involved with the Free Syrian Army – training them, and we know there are also American advisers in those camps in Turkey," he says. And, "when you combine all that – sanctions, diplomatic moves, the involvement with the Free Syrian Army, it begins to create a dynamic that though perhaps the Americans don’t want involvement in the military operation in Syria, they can pull it in that direction.”
Syria’s Foreign Ministry says the US is getting involved in affairs that are none of its business. And now, Damascus has pulled heavy weapons and tanks from cities after pressure from the Arab League, which says that security forces continue to kill civilian protestors regardless.
“The United States is one of the parties seeking to rekindle violence by its mobilization and incitement,” said a representative of the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
American statements on the situation "are a gross interference in the work of the Arab League, and an unjustified attempt to internationalize the issue of Syria,” he said.
Jeffrey Feltman, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, was to travel to Cairo for consultations with the Arab League about Syria, according to a Tuesday statement from the US State Department. For its part, the White House has said the Arab League's conditions for the regime have not been honored.
A team of Arab League observers has been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the regime’s implementation of a peace agreement, signed by both sides, which would help end violence in the country.
