PressTV: Imperialists Seek To Destabilize Syria

The profit-seeking US corporations and bankers try to destabilize the Syrian government for its anti-Imperialist stance, an analyst tells Press TV.

The UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has called on Iran to help achieve a ceasefire in Syria during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) starting on October 25.

During his visit to Tehran, Brahimi held talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili.

Meanwhile the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced Tehran’s support for the ceasefire and negotiations in order to set the ground for holding free elections as ways for ending the armed crisis in Syria.

Syria has been scene of 19 months of deadly unrest since March 2011 which has claimed the lives of many Syrians including a large number of soldiers and security forces.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Caleb Maupin with the International Action Center from New York to shed more light on the issue at hand.

Maupin is joined by two additional guests: Randy Short with the Dignity, Human Rights and Peace Organization from Washington and Sharif Nashashibi, Chairman of Arab Media Watch from London.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: An amazingly serious warning comes from Lakhdar Brahimi [International peace envoy], he has said that the crisis in Syria "cannot remain confined within Syrian territory. Either it is solved or gets it gets worse and sets the region ablaze."

What's your reaction when you hear that after his tour that he has made of all these different countries that are either directly or indirectly involved?

Maupin: Well, he is certainly speaking the truth because the greatest roadblock to peace in Syria is the United States and its proxy Israel.

Right now, all over the world, wherever there are governments that defy the US, which the Assad government has defied the US and has not blindly obeyed the US orders and as a result, when governments defy the US, the US engages in campaigns of destabilization, making efforts to overthrow those governments and foment a chaos in order that they can come in and take over and get their way.

And that is what's going on with this so-called Free Syrian Army. They are not fighting for human rights or anything like that. They are being backed and supported by the West in order to overthrow a government that won't obey Washington D.C.

That is what's going on and it is really no different than what the US did in Nicaragua in the 1980s when it funded the Contras; another group of people that were going around, killing people and murdering people, but the US media, of course, never spoke about the crimes that the Contras committed and well, they were backed and funded by the US.

This notion that is projected all across the Western media that the Free Syrian Army are a bunch of freedom fighters or something, that's a bunch of nonsense.

These are people that are engaging in crimes against humanity, murdering civilians, but we never get to hear about them in the United States while they have a drum beat for war in Syria.

The US is trying to foment civil war and unrest in Syria in order to get control of the region and it is the people of the world who must stand up against that.

If we want peace in the region, we need to stand against this war drive in the US and this effort to destabilize the Syrian people.

Press TV: Caleb Maupin somewhat there are similar sentiments that you have with [Other guest of the program] Randy Short but to conclude from the two viewpoints, yours and Randy Shorts, you maybe could elaborate more, what is the plan that the US and its allies have, if we see all these inconsistencies that we have seen?

It doesn't appear from what I'm gathering that ...,the conclusion and I'm making, that they want Syria, that they actually by supporting indirectly or directly some of these groups and extremists that the entire region will be at their disposal for them to maneuver based on the mayhem that is created since there are other countries that could be within their sight such as, let's say Lebanon, let's say Iran or whatever other countries may be in their plans.

Maupin: Well, the US bankers and corporations that run the government here in the United States, they have a global outlook and they are always looking for how they can continue to find every corner of the earth and use it to make profits for themselves.

And the Syrian government, as a government that has defied them; it has, in numerous cases, not obeyed them and as a result they are trying to destabilize it.

But it's part of their global agenda. They don't like the fact that the Syrian government has an alliance with Iran, with Russia, with China; they don't like that.

They want global domination and global hegemony and they've learned that in order to get that the best way to do it is to create chaos.

You know, Libya, we witnessed a similar situation in Libya. There was the so-called group of rebels that the media was hailing as heroes but what happened?

They just had the country destroyed, it was bombed into ruin. The people there are in misery.

All over the world, the US always beats its chest and talks about humanitarianism and trying to create peace and it is false.

Press TV: Ok! Caleb Maupin go ahead.

Maupin: It's very easier to sit here and say Oh! there is this one government, it's not perfect... but when the US is trying to destabilize them and overthrow a government.

The US will always make it worse. There is not a situation in the world that the US has ever improved by bombing and destroying and every time the US bombs and destroys a country, they do it with a big media campaign talking about human rights. Human rights, human rights, human rights!

But the US violates human rights all over the world and when there is people that are defying a government that is obedient to West we don't hear about their concerns. We never get to hear about their concerns.

Look! all over the world the US violates human rights and…

…When the greatest mass murderers on this earth, the US imperialists, point their guns at someone, they don't have to pass any test in my book, for me, to rally against them.

The people who are under attack do not have to pass any test as far as I'm concerned. You know, when the greatest mass murderers have their weapons pointed at them and are getting ready to strike, it is the duty of the people of the world to come to their defense and stand against this attack and I don't make any requirements of the victims. I don't blame the victims for what the West does.

…This isn't an academic discussion. This isn't just some hypothetical debate. People are dying right now in Syria and it's time to pick sides.

I'm on the side of the people of the world who are against the US imperialists. I'm on the people’s side. This isn't an academic debate about human rights. This is a real war that's going on and I'm on the people’s side.

I support the people of Syria while the West is trying to destabilize and destroy them. I've chosen sides and now people of the world must choose sides.