Russian Perspective in Syria Based on State’s Sovereignty

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin announced Tuesday that the United States blocked the proposed Russian draft presidential statement at the Security Council (UNSC) on the issue of conflict settlement in the Middle East.

This came to no surprise for Middle East expert and co-founder of the Syrian youth in Britain movement Danni Makki, who told Radio Sputnik that the US has taken a “very different stance” from the more pragmatic ones of Russia, China and Iran.

Makki argues that Western values and policies have repeatedly shown to miss their mark, leaving a number of countries in ruins.

“Russia’s perspective is more from a state sovereignty, international relations principle,” he told Sputnik.

“What President Putin wants for Syria is for there to be a preservation of state institutions, for the Syrian government to have a part in the war on terror that’s being conducted on its territory, but within international law, under the auspices of international sovereignty, and something that respects Syria’s territorial integrity.”

He used the sacking of the historic city of Palmyra as an example of failed policies of the United States and its allies in Syria.

“When the United States of America saw this army of ISIS trucks and armoured vehicles going toward Palmyra, not one missile was fired,” he pointed out.

“[A]ll of a sudden, the American satellites and systems are now tracking Russian movements on the coast and Russian ships … But this sophisticated technology in warfare and satellite systems was not used to quo ISIS’s advance in Palmyra and other areas,” Makki said.

This essentially means that the US is intervening in fighting Islamic State terrorists in a symbolic manner, the expert said, in order to show it has some grade of control over the Middle East.

Makki argued that Washington’s policy in Syria is primarily aimed at overthrowing the Syrian government to undermine the influence of Russia, Iran and China in the region and install a puppet government, which will listen to what Washington says. And this approach, which has already failed in several countries, actually demonstrates the lack of a Mideast ground strategy of the United States.

“One day they want to fight ISIS, then they want to fight President Assad, then they want to arm the rebels … It’s a policy in limbo, very uncertain, very unclear,” Makki argues.

Unlike the US, Russia is making a real effort to improve security in the region, which was reflected in President Putin’s address at the United Nations General Assembly.

“[President Putin] has really stood up for this Western hegemony in the Middle East. And Syria is the breaking point,” Makki concluded.