The United States has been systematically destroying countries in the Middle East for many years now with only one objective — to get away with plundering their resources while these countries are gripped by crises and wars. This became quite visible after the US intervened in Libya and Syria in 2011.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Washington used the “War on Terror” as an excuse to pursue an expansionist foreign policy and gain control of energy resources in other countries. This was what motivated the decision that was initially taken by the United States and their allies to use al-Qaeda (terrorist organization banned in Russia) in order to destabilize the situation in the region and overthrow the legitimate governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria and a number of other majority-Muslim countries. After that plan failed, Washington created the “Islamic State”, also known by its Arabic-language acronym DAESH (banned in Russia), so that Washington could fight the regional governments it did not like, and it gave the Americans a pretext for direct military intervention, in order “to fight terrorists”.
The international community has long shared a strong suspicion that the United States is using terrorist organizations to promote its own national interests all over the world. The media have written about this openly in many countries, even in America’s NATO ally Turkey. “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is the name of the organization which originated as al-Qaeda in Syria, transformed into al-Nusra Front (both organizations are banned in Russia)and was then joined by DAESH (also banned in Russia) militants to become what it is now. So this is an American organization waging a proxy war on behalf of the United States. This organization was the main instigator of the conflict in Idlib. That is because this organization was delegated by the US the task of establishing an autonomous Sunni region in Idlib,” writes the Turkish newspaper Yeni Çağ.
“As the International Crisis Group, a branch of a deeply entrenched structure in the United States, suggests, the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – banned in Russia) jihadi terrorist organization in Idlib needs to be protected… If we take the suggestion from the International Crisis Group as America’s plan for Idlib, then the following conclusion can be drawn: The United States, which prides itself on the wealth of experience it has built up in orchestrating and exploiting terrorist organizations, now wants to take the HTS under its wing in order to pursue US interests,” a point which is highlighted by Turkish online news portal Odatv.com.
Even when Russian Aerospace Forces carried out their first airstrikes on the militants in Syria, it became clear that the US is covering the DAESH terrorists, providing them with training, intelligence and weapons. US instructors trained jihadists at their military bases, teaching them modern methods of warfare. Washington also supplied DAESH with modern weapons, ammunition, communications equipment and military equipment, treated them in hospitals, and pulled active terrorists out of areas under fire.
The United States cooperated with DAESH terrorists “on all fronts”. A detailed examination of terrorist drones which were shot down in Syria found that event though these objects had a crude outward appearance, they were not makeshift “homemade drones”. According to official information published in early September 2019 by Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Syromolotov, the drones were assembled with the help of top specialists, who applied complex technical solutions and Western technological developments that require specialist knowledge. At the same time, when military targets in Syria and the Khmeimim Air Base operated by Russia were under attack, the drones “moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours.”
In addition to supplying the Islamists with weapons, the US military trained them in information warfare.
The findings of an in-depth investigation into the support provided to jihadi groups in Syria by several Western intelligence agencies including the CIA were published in a book “The Shadow War in Syria” by Maxime Chaix, who is an expert on clandestine operations, intelligence and US foreign policy. His investigation revealed a multi-faceted state scandal and points out the murky game played by the Western powers and their Middle Eastern allies in the Levant. Timber Sycamore is the codename of a covert operation officially authorized by Obama in June 2013 to train and equip the anti-Assad rebellion, but which actually started in October 2011, when the CIA was operating via Britain’s MI6 to avoid having to notify Congress that it was arming the rebels in Syria. It was the CIA and MI6 (the British foreign intelligence service) who set up a rebel arms supply network in Syria from Libya — a plan that involved the Saudi, Qatari and Turkish intelligence services.
What the Americans received in return was access to the Syrian oil fields, to enriching themselves at the expense of the Syrian state, and America thus played a direct role in Syria’s descent into chaos. According to the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and information published by various different media outlets, the US produces and sells $3.3 million worth of Syrian oil every day. Every month, $70-80 million is being pumped into the bank accounts of American intelligence agencies, and about $10 million is divvied up between the leaders of the Kurdish fighters.
And now the direct connection between the United States and terrorists Syria has been publicly confirmed once again in information received from a former colonel of the Syrian Armed Forces, Sultan Aid Abdella Souda, which was passed to the regional media a few days after he was detained by Syrian counterintelligence forces for desertion. Among other things, the arrested defector said that the US military, which controls the area within a 55 kilometer radius of the Al-Tanf US military base in Syria, is actively sending militants from this zone to Idlib province. After joining the militants, Souda himself was subordinated to American expert instructors who trained militants to carry out sabotage, mainly at oil facilities and infrastructure controlled by the Syrian government. According to Souda, weapons were given to the militants by the US military.
The words of this defector along with other facts that have been published by many media outlets in the past confirm that Washington has a close connection with the terrorist groups it had created in the region. In fact, DAESH terrorists are being used as some sort of irregular US military force who are living off their budget. As even Senator McCain used to say, the United States needs the militants in order to be able to exploit Syrian territory more aggressively.
Valery Kulikov, political analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
