US Creating Safe Havens for Terrorists in Post-ISIL Syria

Rasa - At a time when human rights groups and international aid agencies report that over 511,000 people have been killed in the course of the Syria war. And at a time when the conflict approaches its seven year anniversary in the next few days, the United States is way off the line to threaten to attack the Syrian government and its allies all over again.

News ID: 436844

Date: 13 March 2018 - 23:52

RNA - Regrettably, that’s exactly what the War Party is doing now. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has demanded that the UN Security Council immediately declare a 30-day ceasefire across Eastern Ghouta and the rest of Damascus province, and is even threatening to attack Syria if this doesn’t happen.

This is while Eastern Ghouta is the last terror-held area around Damascus, and under International Law and the UN Charter, the Syrian Army has every right to attack the terrorists there, advance deep into the region, and try and recover it from the foreign-backed terrorist groups, including America’s favorite and Qaeda-allied rebels.

More to the point, since terrorist groups are not part of the ceasefire agreement between the allied forces and the opposition, Haley cannot claim this offensive can’t be allowed to continue, much less threaten that the US is prepared to act unilaterally.

These threats come amid official announcements that the US is keen to build still more illegal military bases there and carry out a new major attack against Syria at any rate, hoping to affect regime change in Damascus - with help from terror proxies. The situation in Ghouta may simply be the pretext for this new campaign. There have been several reports just in the last couple of weeks warning that the US-backed terrorists are preparing to conduct yet another false-flag operation in Ghouta to accuse the Syrian government of a chemical attack and give grounds to the US to take military action along with some European allies. That's why the Russians have voiced fury over the US threats, warning that any such claim should be corroborated by irrefutable evidence, or else, the Russian military would take action to defend their Syrian comrades against any move by the US and its allies.

Nevertheless, the extent of UN ceasefire in Syria does not apply to terrorist groups that are allied with Al-Qaeda in Eastern Ghouta, according to Syrian and Russian officials, because they include banned terrorist groups naturally not included in the pact. Also since Russia is backing the offensive, it is to be expected they will block any UN Security Council move threatening the offensive that is only designed to dislodge the last remnants of foreign-backed terrorist groups from the zone.

After all, the ceasefire agreement and the de-escalation zones were established to try to keep the two sides from fighting. They were never intended to give a breather to various terrorist groups too. At the same time, the Syrian Army and allies are trying to safely transfer the civilians from inside the zone. They are certainly not targeting those trapped people. But the US, which backs the ‘moderate’ Qaeda-allied rebels, is eager to claim that’s the case in order to spin the Syrian government as being in violation of te ceasefire agreement at the UN.

According to Fars News Agancy, to make matters worse, war-party officials have even issued statements warning the allied forces to respect the de-escalation zone and not jeopardize the ceasefire. It’s clear how sincere this call really is, however, with US officials openly threatening to attack Syria soon at any rate.

Throughout 7 years of war and occupation in Syria, the underlying foreign policy for the new military escalation on the pretext of fighting terror has been that Syria must always be a safe haven for terrorist organizations to protect Israel and America’s interests in the region. Thanks to this criminal policy, parts of post-ISIL Syria are already effectively safe havens again, particularly Eastern Ghouta, reflective of the vast amounts of territory occupied by the US-backed militant groups. With US officials projecting more threats against the Syrian government in 2018, Syria needs to put an end to the terrorist groups in there or this is only going to get worse.

US options are even narrower than usual in this case, because while the US would normally go to the invade/occupy mode to regime change the targeted country, that invasion and occupation has already been done in Syria, and has failed. The escalation is already in process as well, the latest of many, and it’s failing as well. In reality, all the US can do is prepare for the consequences of the failed regime-change campaign, as the terrorist safe havens are falling to the Syrian army one after another.

That said, the frustrated US is still limited in what it can do even if it continues its policy of prolonging occupation and conducting military operations in Syria. If there is intelligence of planning and there are sound minds in Washington, the War Party may be forced to call it quits.

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