Damascus:Mass funeral (Photo AP)

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A prominent author says the US and Saudi Arabia are engaged in arming anti-government opposition groups in Syria in efforts to distract Damascus from offering assistance to the people.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeb Shaath, author and Middle East expert, to further discuss the issue.

The following is a transcription of the interview.

Press TV: As [our previous guest speaker] professor Khairallah has said if the opposition is involved in these type of acts, let’s look at that. If we look at how the revolutions that have taken place in the region are still in the process of taking place, we think that in none of these that were actual revolutions were the revolutionaries armed. Actually, they tried to stay away from the arms and tried to use the peaceful process of people-power to bring on the revolution. So do you think that that in itself is another key factor to the reality of what’s going on in the ground? As professor Khairallah just said, what type of real opposition would be involved in killing its own people?

Shaath: Yes, I agree with that point of concern. Traditionally, the Yemeni people are armed tribes and armed people. It’s part of their custom and clothing to have the Arabic Jambiya which is a big knife around their waste.

Those people, when they participated in the revolution in Yemen against Ali Saleh before, they refused to carry their arms to the streets and they kept it at home. The tribes in Yemen are heavily armed as well. They could have used that. And in part, Ali Saleh tried to drag the tribes to a fight so they can confuse the revolutionaries in Yemen a, but they didn’t.

The same thing we’ve witnessed in Tunisia. The people refused to bring arms to the street or to bring arms in Egypt to the street when they’ve been attacked by Mubarak‘s forces or (SCAF’s).

But at the same time the counter-revolution, which is being financed by Saudi Arabia, is working hard with the American think tanks of the CIA to keep the revolution diverted from its own target of helping the people, and to make sure now the counter-revolution appears as a revolution.

In Syria they couldn’t. There are surveys being carried out by the Qatari agent like the .gov poll which was financed by Qatar. They found out there was 55 percent solid support for [President] Bashar al-Assad in Syria. And that means you have over 55 percent of popular support for the president. If you think of it as a regime, you’ll have 70 percent.

So there is no mass support for these guys. And the opposition in Syria, most of it is not involved in such a thing. The Saudis, the Americans and their puppets in the area, when they witnessed that, the only way they see the scenario work is the style they used in Iraq and they used before in Afghanistan as well to bring chaos and fanatic people to start exploiting and accusing the regime to this and that and to cause havoc. By the time the fog of war settled, they could have achieved their target.

Sincerely, I want to say one thing. Since when in the history of the Arab people they’ve seen the Saudis at a time to arm any resistance? Have they ever tried to arm the Palestinian resistance against the Zionists? Have they ever stood by the Lebanese people in their war against the Zionists? It’s to the contrary.

Press TV: Mr. Shaath, do you see the Israel’s playing a role in the situation that’s taken place in Syria?

Shaath: Absolutely. Since there was a mention before, as a member of NATO, Turkey has with Israel a long-time joint military intelligence agreement which is explicitly directed against Syria.

Party to these hidden partners are Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These people are working since 1993 in a memorandum of understanding to create havoc in Syria and Iraq at the time. That’s their targets. We know they were working hand in hand.

And you have the Turkish confessions of 40 intelligence officers captured in Syria. They were saying how the Mossad was training them and giving them the targets what to hit in Syria. And they were actually involved with al-Qaeda as well. The Israelis, Turkish and al-Qaeda were working together, from bases in Jordan, around Turkey and inside Lebanon. So these things are out there. The confessions, they told us a lot of the stories about what is going on.

So it’s in the interests of Israel to destroy the resisting camp, which Syria is the cornerstone of in the Arabic world, by eliminating the regime in Syria and introducing the Saudis’ Wahabis sort of, friendly, regimes. They will guarantee the total control and domination of the Zionists and the United States of America in the region.

Let’s not forget who is this Saudi regime — built by the British and then inherited by the United States of America. This absolutist feudalist regime as part of the imperialist agenda, in looting the resources of the area and destroying any movement to liberate itself from colonialism.

From the 50s to the 60s they participated in destroying the revolutionary movement in south Yemen and now today they are mingling in the internal affairs of Yemen. They helped in destroying the Egyptian army in the 60s so it was an easy target for the Zionists and Americans in the 1967 war.

Saudi Arabia was supporting Jordan in destroying the Palestinian resistance in Jordan in 1970, and helped in targeting the Syrian army at the time which tried to save the Palestinians.

So Saudi Arabia has a huge history against the people of the area, we’re not going to forget it’s an absolutist feudalist regime created by the imperialists in the area.

source: Press TV