Michael Lüders: "Russia won in Syria"

By Vestnik Kavkaza
Michael Lüders: "Russia won in Syria"

A well-known Middle East expert, Michael Lüders, speaking with Deutschlandfunk, commented on the current situation in Syria after the capture of the eastern part of Aleppo by the government forces. The expert noted that the capture of the last stronghold of the militants in Aleppo became possible only after the relevant agreement reached between Russia and Turkey, as a result of which the Turks have significantly reduced their support for the Syrian militants. In response, Moscow gave Turkey "carte blanche" to conduct military operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

What is happening now with the people in Syria is of only secondary importance to those who have all the threads of the conflict. It has ceased to be important a long time ago, what Syrians want or do not want. According to Lüders, in Syria, there is a fairly primitive geopolitical confrontation at the expense of Syrian people's misery and suffering. Syria's exceptionally important geographic position, which makes it attractive for transit energy routes from the Persian Gulf and Iraq to Turkey (in particular, for a gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey) and Europe, has become one of the fundamental factors of the conflict. 

Michael Lüders stressed that there is a war of representatives in Syria, in which the Western countries, along with Turkey and the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf, have originally staked on the overthrow of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. "Not because he despised his own people, but because he was an ally of Iran and Russia in the region. And for this same reason, Russia and Iran wanted to keep the power of Bashar al-Assad at all costs. Clashes to gain control over the east of Aleppo personified this geopolitical duel. And, apparently, the winner of this fight is Russia. From the point of view of the West, it is extremely unprofitable, and, therefore, the West is trying to save what can still be saved, attempting to pass one or another resolution through the UN. But in fact, the decision has already been made, Bashar al-Assad will maintain his authority and Russia and Iran are the strategic winners in this situation," the expert noted. Lüders is confident that Russia, Iran and China have a common interest in order to prevent Syria from falling into the hands of the West and the repetition of the Libyan scenario.

The political scientist criticized the view of the conflict widespread in the Western media, according to which, Bashar al-Assad and his troops are "bad guys" and the so-called opposition or rebels are "good". "Somehow, the local press almost never write that 90-95% of militants, who fought in the eastern Aleppo, are jihadists related or allied with the Al-Qaeda or ISIS. It is striking that these people, whom we in the West rightfully consider as terrorists, were massively armed by Western sources - the US and Turkey - which allowed them for many years to resist in Aleppo and wage war against the regime of Bashar al-Assad," the expert believes.

Commenting on the possibility of mutual understanding on the Syrian issue between Washington and Moscow after Donald Trump will come to power, Lüders noted that such a scenario is possible. However, he also recalled that one should not lose sight of the fact that there are serious political groups in the US opposed to such normalization. Now the main issue in the US-Russian confrontation is whether Russia interfered in the US election race. This charge was announced, but no concrete evidence has been provided yet, and it looks like it is an attempt of resigning President Barack Obama to tie Donald Trump's hands and prevent the normalization of relations between the US and Russia.

11245 views
Поделиться:
Print: