Arab Journalist on Syria Strike: 'This Was an Attack of Three Mafia Gangs'

Aktham Suliman, an Arab journalist who was working for Al Jazeera for about ten years, has warned of the drastic consequences of Western airstrikes in Syria in an interview with Sputnik Germany.
Sputnik

Mafia-Like Behavior

Syria was attacked by three Western "Mafia gangs," correspondent and political analyst Aktham Suliman told Sputnik, referring to the airstrikes launched by the United States, the United Kingdom and France against Syria on Friday night.

"There was no reason in the world to attack a country like Syria now," the journalist said.

According to him, such a decision was made by Western countries in advance and the alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Douma was only used as a pretext.

READ MORE: Syrian Residents: 'Balconies Were Filled With Children Watching Missile Attacks'

"That was a mafia-like behavior; it's not the normal behavior of a state. That's scary. It is no longer about Syria. If these decision-makers act in this way, even in domestic politics, they'll lead us into a world war. This not only affects the Syrians, but rather the whole world," Suliman said.

Reaction in Syria

The journalist has noted that many people in Syria watched the attack from the rooftops and balconies of their homes. After that, many went on with their everyday life.

"People got used to the war after seven years. They have developed internal psychological mechanisms to deal with it. Syria is full of jokes about Donald Trump, Theresa May, about this whole gang — on the Internet and social media. It shows how resilient these people are and unwilling to surrender. They laugh about the whole thing, don't take it seriously. They see it as a new episode in a very long, ongoing movie," the journalist stated.

READ MORE: Eastern Ghouta's Liberation Propelled West to Strike Syria — Opposition Member

At the same time, Suliman is deeply concerned about the fact that Western countries have once again violated international law and intervened on the territory of a foreign country.

"If you have liberated 95 percent of the territory, you don't use chemical weapons to liberate the remaining five percent. That does not work, especially according to the laws of physics. When a wind comes, everything [the chemicals] would have been carried to the capital, Damascus, three, four kilometers away. My problem in the whole story is really the physics, not the chemistry. Some people go so far with their propaganda that they do not even bother to come up with a believable story," Suliman concluded.

"Irrational" Behavior of the West

Suliman is confident that such attacks would not benefit anyone in Syria, even opposition groups.

At the same time, he has confirmed that the majority of the Syrian population continues to support President Bashar al-Assad.

"You can stand to it however you want, but that's a fact," Suliman stated, adding that, apparently, Western countries are not interested in Syrian people's opinion. "It's about big, geostrategic interests," he concluded.

On Friday night, the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched airstrikes against Syria over reports of a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta's Douma.

Western countries are accusing the Syrian government of being behind the alleged chemical attack while Damascus has refuted the allegations.

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