Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, was featured on Press TV News Analysis discussing US foreign policy toward Syria. The program aired on December 30, 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
'AL report on Syria not surprising'
Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:0AM GMT
Press TV interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire and a Middle East expert. To watch this segment of News Analysis just log on to the website below:
http://presstv.com/detail/218635.html
Syria has been the scene of clashes during the past few months, which the government says is created by the armed groups, supported by NATO and the West to destabilize the country.
The Arab League [AL] delegation, headed by General al-Dabi, has said that the situation they have observed in the country, even in the western city of Homs, the epicenter of the unrest, does not correspond to what the media suggest.
Press TV talks with Abayomi Azikiwe, Middle East expert in Detroit, about the issue of the Syrian unrest and the Arab League delegation mission to the country.
What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: A team of over a hundred and fifty observers representing the Arab league has said that Syrian officials have been cooperative and that they have found nothing during their initial visit to Homs, which is the epicenter of the unrest. What conclusions do you draw from this observation?
Azikiwe: Well, it is not really surprising. The Arab League delegation headed by General al-Dabi has said that the situation even in the city of Homs is reassuring. So we think that there needs to be a reassessment particularly here in the West, in regard to what is actually being promoted by the corporate media.
The National Security Council in the Obama administration in recent days has done a review of the possibility of implementing a no-fly zone over Syria. This is quite similar to what they did over the North African state of Libya.
We know that this is just a code word for an all-out aerial bombardment of Syria, which would inevitably lead, in their opinion, to regime change.
So we think that there needs to be a reassessment of US foreign policy toward Syria because what they are doing is nothing except escalating tensions within the region.
Now, there have been reports that the armed groups that are carrying out operations against Syrian troops, against Syrian security forces as well as civilians; that these are armed groups that have been funded, according to these claims, from Turkey's territory.
And this is a very serious situation because Turkey is a long time member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] -which is the same organization that purportedly headed the war against Libya. So I think on the agenda of the United States at this time is clearly regime change and it also wants to escalate tensions throughout the entire region of the Middle East.
Press TV: Syria is said to be dealing with an armed insurrection - they have said that time and again that there are armed gunmen that have been supported by Turkey; supported by NATO, which have infiltrated the protest movement and which are in large part responsible for creating this crisis, all of which is done to justify a subsequent humanitarian intervention by NATO forces. Is this something you agree with?
Azikiwe: Most definitely. For a number of years now Syria has been on the hit list, along with Iran, along with Hezbollah in Lebanon and along with Hamas in the Gaza region of Palestine, for regime change; for destabilization. And it cannot be looked at separately, the situation in Syria, from what is going on now vis-à-vis US escalation of tensions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Now, there have been serious threats over the last two weeks in regard to Iran, imposing even more draconian sanctions in regard to the Central Bank, the Oil industry of Iran and even threats to challenge Iran within their own territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
These are clearly acts of war; acts of intimidation, not only against Iran and Syria but against the entire region of the Middle East. And this is taking place because of the uprisings that we have seen over the last year, starting in Tunisia and Egypt and extending into Yemen and to Bahrain and now even to Saudi Arabia itself.
They want to stop these revolutionary democratic movements; they want to ensure that the state of Israel has free reign to carry out its operations of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza as well as the West Bank and it also wants to make sure that Hezbollah in Lebanon remains in check as far as the United States is concerned in regard to their power in that country as well.
So we have to look at the current situation in Syria and the US hostility towards the Assad government in Syria within a broader context of what is going on in the Middle East. That is why it is very important in this country for peace activists, anti-war activists and social justice activists to oppose all US military aggression that is taking place now throughout the entire Middle East.
It does nothing to benefit the working people here in this country (US) who are suffering from greater poverty, increasing unemployment, increasing cuts in regard to social services and public services. A recent US Census Bureau survey indicated that nearly half of the people in the United States now are either in poverty or near poverty. And this is totally unacceptable in a country that is considered to be the richest nation on earth. So, yes it has to be viewed in a regional context.
Press TV: I have a feeling, it is just my thoughts here based on the statements that have been made, this re-mapping of the Middle East that the US and perhaps its allies are in together, it just doesn't make sense in a matter of speaking of what it is going to entail.
We are talking about so many countries that may as a result be involved in war. So isn't that where the root of the problem is, if there is indeed a plan that the United States and the Western countries have, in terms of, as it's been said, remapping the Middle East?
Azikiwe: Well, first of all there is no sensible way out of the economic crisis that the United States is facing at this time, as far as the class divisions, the distribution of wealth, the gross overproduction that exists now in the United States, the administration and the people who are backing them are looking for a way out of this crisis.
They have exploited people in this country to the point where they are almost indigent. So the only solution they see is to go overseas to seize territory, to seize resources from people who have vast strategic minerals, such as oil, such as other strategic assets.
Press TV: Is it because they are feeling that they are not going to have countries that are going to be "client regimes"? You have a bunch of, perhaps, people that are ruling countries that they want out of the way, or even the ones that have evolved out of Tunisia, Libya for example with more in Egypt, that are not "in line with them" so they want to create the “client regimes” coming out of this?
Azikiwe: Yes, they want to do that, but it is not going to work. It is not working in Egypt; the masses are still rising up right now in Egypt, demanding genuine revolutionary democracy in that country and it is happening throughout the entire region. So this is a failed process that the US has embarked upon and the people who are going to suffer are the people here in this country and the people throughout the entire Middle East.
No comments:
Post a Comment