A number of Persian Gulf monarchies praised this recent attack of Washington, along with the forces that are representing the so-called opposition in the Syrian Arab Republic, which is hardly surprising, since the latter has been enjoying Wahhabi petrodollars for a long time now, so it’s fully relying on the judgment of its sponsors.
There’s been other responses voiced by the prominent political figures of the region that are based on the actual historic facts.
Against the backdrop of the notorious test tube show that was put up by the former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in the UN Security Council before the invasion of Iraq (allegedly the tube contained samples of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that, as a matter of fact, didn’t exist), a significant number of commentators reject the official version brought forward by Washington about the aggression being a kind of a response to the chemical attack that was allegedly carried out by the forces controlled by Damascus in the Idlib Governorate.
It would seem that the delirious nature of the Western accusations against Damascus is pretty much obvious for anyone. The Syrian army has recently demonstrated its capability of pushing the representative of the so-called armed opposition pretty effectively. Moreover, Damascus was so confident in the advantageous position it now occupies that it agreed to establish a direct contacts with the members of different opposition groups to hold negotiations with those in Astana. To use chemical weapons in such a situation would be an equivalent of political suicide.
The Iraqi website South Al-Iraq bitterly notes that Trump, who has previously stated time and time again that his was the destruction of terrorist forces, would be better off firing his missiles at them, instead of targeting Syria’s government forces with its strikes. At the same time, the air strikes he authorizes have already resulted in the rapidly growing number of civilian casualties in Mosul, thus creating a rapidly worsening the humanitarian disaster in Iraq, the existence of which both Arab and Western media sources are refusing to admit. According to the site, the missile attack would relieve an extensive amount of pressure that ISIS has recently found itself under,
Middle Eastern experts are trying to understand the peculiarities of Washington’s new policies. Marwan Bishara – the leading analyst of the Al-Jazeera TV channel calls into question the statement made by the head of the American state about him “knowing more than his generals do.” So far he has demonstrated short-sightedness while being out of his depth in the foreign policy matters. As commander-in-chief, he is the only one who is entrusted with the power of issuing any orders, and yet those he bring to the table look stupid at best. According to Marwan, it was the generals that Trump appointed that were behind the decision to launch Tomahawk missiles against the Syrians. These are Defense Secretary James Mattis, Internal Security Minister John Kelly and National Security Adviser Herbert McMaster. All the three are veterans of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, according to the analyst, are known for their self-confidence and intellectualism.
The deputy of the Egyptian parliament, Mustafa Bakri has announced in one of his interviews that Trump acts like “a new Rambo”, which uses force mindlessly and vigorously. He has convinced after what has happened to Syria, the Arabs must get a grip of this fact, since the first step the new US president took in office was the introduction of a number of Arab states into the unofficial list of state’s enemies.
Regional authors are now trying to evaluate the possible consequences of Trump’s missile strikes against Syria for the Middle East as a whole. In the opinion of Iraqi Vice-President Nouri al-Maliki, the goal of the US attack against Syria goes far beyond the so-called “punishment” for the alleged use of chemical weapons that is being blamed on Assad. This action is a kind of message to all the Arab rulers that the US will not hesitate to assault them, using military force with total disregard to the existing international procedures and the opinions that international authorities voice.
The Egyptian newspaper Ash-Shuruk is convinced that no one in the Arab world should even get close to believing Trump or supporting him, since he’ss pretty much a wild card.
Yury Zinin, Leading Research Fellow at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
