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An analyst says the approach adopted by the Western powers toward the crisis in Syria is “unethical” as the West always “takes interests over values”.

At least 15 Syrian civilians were killed and 24 others injured in a car bomb attack in the western city of Homs on Sunday. Last week, Syrian newspaper Al Watan published the names of 142 foreign militants from 18 countries, who were killed while fighting against the government. Almost 50 of those named were Saudi nationals.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Danny Makki, co-founder of Syrian Youth in Britain to further discuss the issue. He is joined by two additional guests: Ala’a Ebrahim, journalist and political analyst from the Syrian capital city of Damascus and Jihad Muracadeh, political analyst from Lebanese capital city of Beirut. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Almost on a daily basis there are terrorist attacks and bombings in Syria and usually some civilians are killed. Of course Damascus says that insurgents are behind it and then the opposition says that the government is responsible; but let us look at it in general. We have to always look at which side, actually, benefits, if you want to say benefit, from these types of daily acts of violence there in your perspective?

Makki: well, to start off, not the Syrian government nor the opposition are really benefiting from what is happening. What we are witnessing now is a continued indefensible criminal act of terrorism. This is the new phase of Syrian crisis and this is what the armed opposition are perpetrating against the Syrian population and the Syrian government.

The latest of which was the explosion in Homs which killed up to 15 innocent individuals. We have to understand and comprehend that the majority of the people who are dying in this conflict are civilians and these terrorist attacks against the Syrian infrastructure are directly targeted at killing innocent civilians and this is both reprehensible and can be deemed as a war crime but the biggest problem is we have to hold the regional powers, who support and arm the Syrian opposition, responsible for these acts of criminality and when I say this I mean Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Turkey who through the funding of these armed militias and these al-Qaeda rebels in Syria are essentially continuing the Syria crisis.

The so-called Syrian rebels, who are also supported by regional actors and regional powers, who also have foreign fighters and jihadists, have been targeting schools, hospitals, civilian infrastructures, government infrastructures, government institutions; they have been executing civilians, they have been executing journalists and they have been executing every person who does not support their criminality.

This is very clear and we can also point to the presence of foreign fighters as the external factor within the Syria crisis. The Syrian government has been killed recently up to 150 foreign fighters who were not Syrian.

Even Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN and the Arab League peace envoy to Syria, has stated that there are up to 5000 foreign fighters fighting in Syria. So this is not necessarily a struggle within Syria, an ethnic or a sectarian struggle, it is a regional struggle between the regional powers and the fact that this terrorism is happening is because the direct support for the armed opposition by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

Press TV: Our guest in [Jihad Muracadeh] is saying that the majority of the people in the world or countries in the world do not even recognize the legitimacy of the Syrian government. Your take on that?

Makki: Let’s just be very, very honest. The Syrian government is not bombing peaceful pro-democracy protesters who are holding olive branches; they are bombing rebels who are supported by regional powers, who have very strong links to al-Qaeda, who have very strong links to all the Islamist groups in the region, who are funded and armed and backed by the West and who seek…, some seek an Islamic state, some seek the destruction of the Syrian government.

Jibhat al-Nusrah is essentially a branch of al-Qaeda which is working within Syria and we have seen lots of terrorist atrocities, which have been taking place by Jibhat al-Nusrah and have been claimed that this is an act of Jibhat al-Nusrah.

Most of the explosions in Damascus have been carried out by extremists. The majority of the suicide bombers who are blowing themselves up on Damascus are not Syrian but are sent from other Arab countries, who are jihadists, and we have to comprehend the hypocrisy of this, because this is terrorism and they should be recognized, internationally, as acts of terrorism and the hypocrisy of the Western states in dealing with this is the fact that the West waged the ten-year war against terror in the name of humanity and in the name of fighting al-Qaeda ….

Press TV: What about that [what the previous guest from Damascus just mentioned] Mr. Makki? Looking at that division, what do you think is the goal behind of trying to divide Syria? Because as our guest in Damascus [Mr. Ebrahim] said there have been reference to this by many different entities. What do you think the overall goal of this would be?

Makki: First I agree with your guest in Damascus and I would just like to say that dividing Syria has been on the West’s agenda for the last 40 years, not necessarily throughout the Arab Spring or before this, it has been there for over 40 years because Syria has not submitted to Western hegemony, because Syria has not submitted to the rule of the West and does not have a moderate pro-Western government which allows the American interests in the region.

If we look at the Middle East, almost every single state is under the auspices or the hegemony of the United States of America apart from the Syrian state, because the Syrian state is a revolutionary state against the Western imperialism and against Western hegemony.

It is against post-colonialism and it is essentially a state which supports its own sovereignty. It is the only state in the Middle East which actually does submit to the aspirations of its own people but I just like to make one point, which you made previously; the West waged a ten-year war against terror in the name of fighting al-Qaeda. They killed millions in the process of doing this, yet they support the same terrorists in Syria. Is not this a hypocrisy of the great scale or magnitude?

I mean if we had armed groups in America going round, executing people and chanting Allahu Akbar [Arabic term meaning God id great] would the American government not act, would something not be done?

What we have to comprehend is that the West when they deal with the Syrian crisis, they have an unethical foreign policy because they always take interests over values. Now of the West truly adheres to democracy and humanitarianism within Syria, they would stop the funding and arming of these armed groups and take a stance, which is based on values…

MY/HMV

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