It is up to China and Russia to influence the West to engage Syria in diplomacy and outline the serious consequences for Washington and London if they act outside the standards of international law, believes RT contributor Afshin Rattansi.
Rattansi also highlighted US hypocrisy surrounding the use of
chemical weapons, saying that US troops have used prohibited
warfare tactics as recently as the Iraq War with the use of white
phosphorous.
RT:Looks like the US, the UK are ready to act, looks
like France and Turkey will go along with it, it’s all but done
and dusted, it’s going to happen do you think intervention here?
Afshin Rattansi: As the previous report was saying, the
American networks were saying, it could happen within the next 48
hours. The cruise missile strikes, the very calibrated western
media, more or less explaining, desperately trying to explain to
the population that don’t want any such attack, that it is
necessary and the redline was crossed and therefore it must
happen.
RT:But of course there’s been no UN mandate to do this
yet, at the same time UK parliament has been recalled for
Thursday, NATO is planning an emergency meeting tomorrow, is the
UN going to give that mandate any time soon?
AR: Of course, the UN will never give that mandate, the
National Security Council of Britain is meeting because David
Cameron the Prime Minister foreshortened his holiday, it’s
interesting that the National Security Council was set up in
2010, to talk about the National Security of this country Britain
and most of that was about al-Qaeda, that nebulous concept and
Britain and the United States are now supporting al-Qaeda linked
groups. If anything one would see a normal scenario that
countries should come to the aid of the Assad government. Against
those al-Qaeda linked brigades that certainly Carla Del Ponte the
UN weapons inspector a few months ago said were responsible for
chemical attacks.
RT:The UN inspectors are still working to establish
what did or did not happened there, but they have not come
forward with any clear, concise information yet. Is it going to
make any difference anyway, even if they did?
AR: No difference at all. They are staying in a very nice
hotel- the Four Seasons in Damascus. As for the rest of Syria,
the Russians have delivered humanitarian aid and they have
started evacuating people. The UN weapons inspectors, we hear it
from memoirs like Blix, ElBaradei the pressure they are put
under. We, of course know now from Edward Snowden that the UN
headquarters is bugged so those inspectors presumably have
surveillance devises on them. The honorable thing one might argue
is for all of them to resign all in mass because they are
supposed to be creating peace. Whatever report they come out with
will be construed in a way to justify the kind of US attacks that
people are envisaging.
But we all know, it is the Americans that used chemical weapons
whether in Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia. I think they are
celebrating a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., someone who was
opposed to US chemical attacks and we now know about the CIA and
Saddam’s support for the use of them against Iran. And of course
the Americans used them in Fallujah, white phosphorous. So the
idea that NATO countries can talk about the use of chemical
weapons, when it’s them that have been using it. Those UN
inspectors, let alone Ban Ki Moon, have a lot to answer for.
RT:Britain and the U.S. seem convinced that any
military operation will last for just a couple of days – do you
agree?
AR: The institute of war studies in the US, Chris Harmer who
devised the Tomahawk Strategy, supposedly says- yes, pinpoint
accuracy, this would work- he is now distancing himself from
those remarks saying, it isn’t a way forward. Israel has started
supplying gas masks to its population. According to Chinese news
agencies, Israel does not have enough gas masks. The other people
are saying the USS Gravely, the USS Mahan, the USS Barry and the
USS Ramage - there are four destroyers in the Mediterranean - the
relatives of those thousand troops on those ships better start
asking questions, because Syria has Iskander guided missiles that
can penetrate those ships. So if Syria does react, certainly the
idea of this being a short conflict is blatantly absurd.
RT:Syria's Foreign Minister says the alleged chemical
attack was launched by rebels and foreign mercenaries. Is there
any possibility they had access to chemical weapons?
AR: The important question here is that Britain the United
States and France, let alone Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been
supplying the Al Nusra Front, whether avowedly, by mistake or
whatever. The whole horrific idea of those chemical being
used is of no relevance to what we are now talking about, a
possibility of a scenario that would kill way more children,
create way more refugees. The UN is talking about 1 million
children refugees at the moment. The people now in the dark are
the NATO countries themselves and if anything, it is up to world
powers on the UN Security Council, Russia and China to get
together and explain to Washington and London that there would be
serious consequences for both of them if they act outside any
standards of post WWII international law
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.