Against the backdrop of the recent failed attempts by Washington to spread categorically unsubstantiated accusations against Damascus, claiming that it has used chemical weapons for no apparent reason in Khan Shaykhun, Western think tanks decided to transform their discontent into yet another attempt to bring the Syrian government down, thus obstructing the fight against terrorism that both Russia and Iran have been carrying out in this war-torn country.
In accordance with the tried and tested scheme of using fake “evidence”, like the mysterious tubes that Colin Powell was shaking in front of the international community’s representatives on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, the State Department has decided to indulge in hysteria on the eve of Donald Trump’s first trip to the Middle East. This time the influential American diplomat Stuart Jones and the permanent US representative to the UN, Nikki Haley are leading the charge with a report on the atrocities allegedly committed by the Syrian government, accompanied by a barrage of publications in the media that always appear in media sources like The Wall Street Journal when the White House is up to something.
We are being told that Syrian authorities are hanging dozens of detainees a day, while the bodies of the executed are burned in a special crematorium, with an extensive amount of support provided by Russia and Iran, says the report drafted by Stewart Jones.
All these atrocities are allegedly committed in the Sednaya Prison near Damascus. The conclusions about the existence of a “crematorium” for burning “the hanged” were made on the basis of images taken from outer space by US satellites, The Wall Street Journal claims.
Any sane person understands that no matter how advanced US satellites get, Washington is in no possession of cameras that can see through walls and floors. What is curious is that those satellites are still somehow capable of providing Washington with enough information for it to make such serious claims against the Syrian government, but incapable of assisting in or even capturing the fierce struggle between Syrian troops, supported by Russian and Iranian forces, the terrorist forces of ISIS.
The worst part of this report is that no other evidence has ever been provided.
In addition to these “sensational statements”, Jones accused Moscow and Tehran of supporting the Syrian government, despite the alleged human rights abuses it must be committing, including the “imaginary crematorium practices” that the report emphasizes.
In all likelihood, this, according to the plans of the “strategists”, should become a prelude to a new missile “retaliation attack”, following the pattern that we’ve seen with the attack against Syria’s Shayrat Airbase. And, as always, without something as remotely credible as actual evidence.
Yes, today Washington is on the losing side in Syria, especially after the successful conclusions of the recent peaceful discussions in Astana, where Washington was denied a role. And for Washington it does not matter that the representatives of the international community, including the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, agree on, or that some serious progress has been made in the Syrian negotiation process. Since Washington is unable to claim that it was behind this success, it keeps launching new attacks against Damascus, and at the same time, Moscow and Tehran.
The accusations that Russia is somehow involved in the “daily executions” in Syria go in tune with the latest Russophobic hysteria that can be observed in certain political circles in the United States. It is repeatedly stated that Moscow had interfered in the US presidential election, even though everybody understands that in the absence of any evidence those claims are unfounded, and now they argue that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received “secret reports” during his meeting with Trump. As usual, no evidence is ever needed to come up with such accusations in the American media.
As for the accusations against Tehran featured in this “report”, it should be noted that those fit well with the anti-Iranian tactics adopted by the White House for well over a decade. Especially, if you are to take into account that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recently told NBC that the Trump administration is planning a crusade against Iran. Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East, in part, is designed to manifest Washington’s anti-Iranian sentiments.
Grete Mautner is an independent researcher and journalist from Germany, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”