At this time, the Vice President of the “democratic” United States Joe Biden distinguished himself by saying, in a speech at Harvard University, that Washington’s main problem in Syria was its Middle Eastern allies. “Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE were so keen to remove Assad from power, that they sent hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons to anyone who was ready to fight with government forces.” Mr. Biden acknowledged.
In principle, the vice president said nothing that could not be found out from the daily chronicle of unfortunate events. But it was the first time such a high-ranking American has directly accused his “loyal allies” of supporting terrorism. But this “unfair” criticism, according to the faithful servants of Washington, has finally caused them offense, of which they did not fail to inform the world community, thereby further flaring the relations between the “allies”.
During his speech in Istanbul, the Turkish President denied the allegations, saying that Mr. Biden should apologize. “There can be no question of any help by us to the Islamic state.” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates also expressed “surprise” and demanded from the United States official explanations regarding Mr. Biden’s statement. “I’m surprised by Biden’s words, which are far from reality, especially due to the active participation of the United Arab Emirates in the fight against extremism and terrorism,” said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the UAE Anwar Mohammed Gargash, “as well as our open recognition of existing threats in this regard, including the financing of terrorism and terrorist groups.”
“I ask for an official explanation in connection with the statement of Joseph Biden, which has a negative impact on the image of the UAE,” said the head of the UAE Foreign Ministry. “Especially against the backdrop of our country’s political and practical assistance in the fight against the Islamic State and terrorism in general. The principled position of Abu Dhabi in the battle against international terrorism shows an awareness of the danger that this phenomenon poses to the entire region.”
Of course, the Arabs can be understood: Washington at first demanded from them widespread support, primarily financial, of the “moderate Islamists”, and now accuses them of too zealously fulfilling the wishes of their master.
Former agent of British intelligence MI5 Annie Mashon believes that in blaming its allies for supporting the Islamists, American Vice President Mr. Biden forgets what the United States was doing a year ago. “Most of all I am amazed by the apparent amnesia of Mr. Biden about what America and Britain tried to arrange in Syria a year ago. They sent back their experts and intelligence officers to help ‘rebels’ with logistics,” said E. Mashon.
It is quite clear that Biden’s recent statements may somewhat cool the friendship of the United States and Saudi Arabia, which is a long-time ally of the United States in the Middle East. Right now the United States is trying to distance itself from the chaos that increasingly engulfs the Middle East. Many experts are amazed that Mr. Biden, in fact, is telling the truth about what some of the allies of the United States are doing in the region. It is curious that he confirmed the involvement of Saudi Arabia in financing some of the extremist groups. “I think America is in this case putting itself at risk by criticizing such an important partner in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia. It is surprising that the United States wants to discredit the actions of this state in the region. And not just in the region, because Saudi Arabia financed Wahhabi propaganda in schools in Europe and the United States that promotes the ideas of radical Islam.” said E.Mashon.
But isn’t this – the supply of arms and training of terrorists – what the United States itself has been engaged in over the last few years? Moreover, Washington is once again stepping on the old rake, and has decided to supply arms to the Syrian Free Army, which began the process of reorganization. Its commanders hope that after the reform it will regain the ground lost in the fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Islamist groups operating in the territory of the country. In accordance with these plans, about 65 groups, including Islamist ones, have joined the newly created army and the number of fighters could reach 20,000. Note that, according to mass media publications, the number of Islamic State insurgents in Syria and Iraq is about 30,000.
The reason for this enthusiasm of former enemies, which is openly written about in the Arab press, was the decision by the United States to begin deliveries of weapons to the “moderate” Syrian opposition, and, in addition, to train these fighters also, as before, with American military trainers. According to the newspaper “Asharq al-Awsat”, 1,500 militants of the “Jabhat al-Nusra” group, which is associated with “al-Qaeda”, intend to declare themselves “moderate opposition”.
By the way, the Arab countries, which Washington accuses of carrying out the “wrong policies”, openly lay the blame on the United States for the recent bloody events that set the entire region back in its political and national development. For example, on September 16-17, the Institute for Study of Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, held a conference on “The Arabian Gulf and Regional Challenges” in Riyadh. As noted by one of its members, Professor Mark Katz of the Institute of George Mason, the Saudis and their allies place the main blame for the emergence and expansion of the Islamic State on Washington. In particular, they indicate the three key events that presaged a similar result: The American invasion of Iraq, the American withdrawal from Iraq, and the failure of the Obama administration to launch air strikes on the regime of Bashar al-Assad after the terrorist attack with the use of chemical weapons in August 2013. The first two events of this list really are the key points in the history of the IS – just after the American invasion of Iraq, there appeared a branch of “Al-Qaeda”, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who declared Shia holy war and put Iraq on the brink of civil war.
Many experts are now asking Washington a lot of questions, to which the American rulers have no answer, or, most likely, they know the answer, but do not want to say it. For example, immediately after the American air strikes on the military group “Khorasan” in Syria, it was announced that “not all of its leaders and key figures who planned terrorist attacks in the United States were liquidated, some of them managed to escape.” This was reported by Reuters with reference to US officials familiar with the operation on condition of anonymity. Prior to this operation, for example, no one had heard of the group “Khorasan” and the intention of its leaders to commit a series of terrorist attacks on American soil.
Later, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security of the USA Ben Rhodes said that the terrorists wanted to commit a terrorist attack in the United States and were in the final planning stages. FBI Director James Komi said at the press conference that members of “Khorasan” may still be planning attacks within the United States. According to him, a group consisting of former members of “Al Qaeda” and new extremists still remains in the list of serious terrorist threats. He also gave details that until recently no one in the world knew – the “Khorasan” group is connected to the network of “Al-Qaeda” and “Jabhat en-Nusra”, which is active in Syria. At the same time there is information on the liquidation of “Khorasan” warlord Mohsen al-Fadli, a 33-year-old native of Kuwait, famous for his proximity to the founder of “Al-Qaeda” Osama bin Laden. Unexpectedly Washington also stated that “according to American intelligence agencies, Mohammed Al-Fadli was one of the few who knew in advance of the preparation for the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.” Interesting and curious information, apparently, taken directly from the files of the CIA. How many other terrorist organizations does the CIA have up its sleeves, like a provincial magician, where it exchanges one set of thugs for another whenever necessary.
And now, with the demagogic laying of the blame only on its Arab allies for the unfortunate events taking place in Syria and Iraq, Washington is trying to whitewash itself and, as they say, “muddy the waters”.
In this regard it is necessary to note a single, but highly important fact. It was through the efforts of “hawks” under John McCain in January 2014 that the American Congress held a private session, which voted in favor of the allocation of funds for “Jabhat al-Nusra” and ISIL to fight “against the bloody regime of Bashar al-Assad”.
Viktor Mikhin, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
