[[{"content_id":"123322","domain_id":"0","lang_id":"en","portal_id":"2","owner_id":"29","user_id":"1","view_accesslevel_id":"0","edit_accesslevel_id":"0","delete_accesslevel_id":"0","editor_id":"0","content_title":"US seeks a neo-colonial regime in Syria","content_number":"0","content_date_event":"2014-01-20 13:12:20","content_summary":"US basic strategy in the region is the elimination of any Iranian challenge to US interests","content_summary_fill":"0","content_body":"Keith Jones (Global Research):\r\n\r\n\tOne day after the US gave its assent to a six-month interim nuclear deal with Iran, US Secretary of State John Kerry publicly clashed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Iran’s participation in the Geneva II conference on Syria.\r\n\r\n\tWashington is determined to exclude Iran from the conference, which aims to find a “negotiated solution” to the three year-old Syrian war, unless it agrees to a US “precondition” that means throwing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Iran’s closest ally, to the wolves.\r\n\r\n\tAs one of two UN-designated conference “initiators,” the US claims the power to veto Iran’s participation.\r\n\r\n\tSpeaking at a Paris press conference yesterday alongside Lavrov, Kerry denounced Iran as a “major actor with respect to adverse consequences in Syria.” The US, France, Britain, and their Saudi, Turkish, and Qatari allies have used Al Qaeda-linked groups and tens of thousands of foreign fighters as their proxies in a reactionary war for “regime change” in Syria. As a result, more than 100,000 people have been killed, more than 6 million rendered refugees, and much of Syria razed. Yet Kerry hypocritically attacked Iran’s role in Syria.\r\n\r\n\tWhen Lavrov complained that Iran’s exclusion might scuttle any chance for a negotiated end to the Syria war, Kerry bluntly replied that the only acceptable solution to the conflict is on US terms. He demanded Assad’s ouster and the imposition of a “transitional” Syrian government, in which half the seats would be allotted to US-sponsored Islamist “rebels.”\r\n\r\n\tKerry called it “common sense” to exclude Iran, which has not yet agreed to such a neocolonial “transitional” regime. Kerry’s position was seconded by Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague, who demanded that Tehran give “a signal of support” for the “transitional government” sought by Washington.\r\n\r\n\tThe US’s exclusion of Iran from Geneva II talks is in parallel with its efforts to strengthen its 'Islamist' (Takfiri) opposition proxies. Though these groups’ sectarian atrocities have alienated the Syrian people, they are currently the only US-backed forces inside Syria. The Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the ostensibly secular-led groups promoted by the US as the palatable international face of the opposition, play no significant military role.\r\n\r\n\tThe Obama administration is reportedly working to reconcile the FSA with the Islamic Front, a recently formed, Saudi-backed group that collaborates with the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front. It views the prospect of US military aid going to Al Qaeda groups and the potential for a terrorist “blowback” in the US as acceptable collateral damage in its campaign to topple Assad.\r\n\r\n\tUS imperialism’s reinvigorated campaign for regime change in Syria underscores that its “diplomatic turn” towards talks with Tehran does not signal a fundamental change in its basic strategy in the region: the elimination of any Iranian challenge to US interests, and the strengthening of US hegemony over the world’s main oil-exporting region.","content_html":"

\r\n\tKeith Jones (Global Research):<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tOne day after the US gave its assent to a six-month interim nuclear deal with Iran, US Secretary of State John Kerry publicly clashed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Iran’s participation in the Geneva II conference on Syria.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tWashington is determined to exclude Iran from the conference, which aims to find a “negotiated solution” to the three year-old Syrian war, unless it agrees to a US “precondition” that means throwing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Iran’s closest ally, to the wolves.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tAs one of two UN-designated conference “initiators,” the US claims the power to veto Iran’s participation.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tSpeaking at a Paris press conference yesterday alongside Lavrov, Kerry denounced Iran as a “major actor with respect to adverse consequences in Syria.” The US, France, Britain, and their Saudi, Turkish, and Qatari allies have used Al Qaeda-linked groups and tens of thousands of foreign fighters as their proxies in a reactionary war for “regime change” in Syria. As a result, more than 100,000 people have been killed, more than 6 million rendered refugees, and much of Syria razed. Yet Kerry hypocritically attacked Iran’s role in Syria.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tWhen Lavrov complained that Iran’s exclusion might scuttle any chance for a negotiated end to the Syria war, Kerry bluntly replied that the only acceptable solution to the conflict is on US terms. He demanded Assad’s ouster and the imposition of a “transitional” Syrian government, in which half the seats would be allotted to US-sponsored Islamist “rebels.”<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tKerry called it “common sense” to exclude Iran, which has not yet agreed to such a neocolonial “transitional” regime. Kerry’s position was seconded by Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague, who demanded that Tehran give “a signal of support” for the “transitional government” sought by Washington.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe US’s exclusion of Iran from Geneva II talks is in parallel with its efforts to strengthen its 'Islamist' (Takfiri) opposition proxies. Though these groups’ sectarian atrocities have alienated the Syrian people, they are currently the only US-backed forces inside Syria. The Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the ostensibly secular-led groups promoted by the US as the palatable international face of the opposition, play no significant military role.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tThe Obama administration is reportedly working to reconcile the FSA with the Islamic Front, a recently formed, Saudi-backed group that collaborates with the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front. It views the prospect of US military aid going to Al Qaeda groups and the potential for a terrorist “blowback” in the US as acceptable collateral damage in its campaign to topple Assad.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\tUS imperialism’s reinvigorated campaign for regime change in Syria underscores that its “diplomatic turn” towards talks with Tehran does not signal a fundamental change in its basic strategy in the region: the elimination of any Iranian challenge to US interests, and the strengthening of US hegemony over the world’s main oil-exporting region.<\/p>","content_source":null,"content_url":null,"content_columns":"0","content_date_start":"2014-01-20 13:12:20","content_date_finish":"2014-01-20 13:12:20","content_date_register":"2014-01-20 13:12:20","content_date_last_edit":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","content_show_img":"1","content_show_details":"1","content_show_related_img":"1","content_show_slider":"1","content_show_title_slider":"1","content_comment":"0","content_score":"0","content_recorded":"0","content_confirmed":"1","content_status":"1","content_kind":"0","old_id":"121581","tag_id":null,"tag_word":null,"tag_service":null,"tag_total":null,"tag_soundex":null,"attach_token":"2251644572","attach_date_register":"2014-01-20 13:12:25","attach_id":"116728","attach_file_ext":"jpg","attach_file_header":"image\/jpeg","attach_img_type":"2","attach_img_width":"320","attach_img_height":"120","attach_file_media":"1","attach_show_watermark":"0","score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"visit_count":"213","visit_date_last":"2025-05-10 17:14:43","attach_title":"US seeks a neo-colonial regime in Syria","node_title":"Commentaries","ot_node_left_right":"[{\"node_id\":134, \"left\":25, \"right\":26}]"}]]