'Fueling the violence': Humanitarian intervention in Syria in full swing?

'Fueling the violence': Humanitarian intervention in Syria in full swing?:
While pushing an end to the Syrian arms embargo, Paris andLondon have already met opposition from Germany and Sweden. And ifother EU states refuse to change their minds, Britain and Franceare ready to proceed without fears of international backlash,Syrian political activist Yazan Abdallah told RT.

“There will be diplomatic backlash,” Abdallah said. “Ofcourse there are many nations – although they’re sitting on thefence – that perhaps would not accept by any means arming theSyrian rebels outside any international agreement from the UNSecurity Council.”

“But we have to remember that such an incident happened beforein Iraq,” Abdallah noted, referring to a 2003 decision by theBritish government – facing opposition from its own Parliament – togo to war based on reports of weapons of mass destruction thatlater turned out to be fraudulent.

Balance between the state and the extremists

The UN remains biased against the Syrian government, turning ablind eye to crimes committed by terrorists and Islamists, Abdallahsays, stressing that most of the humanitarian atrocities registeredin Syria are “attributed to acts of extremism.”
“Now they are reporting on crimes against humanity, onbeheadings, on recruiting children, on rape, and on torture leadingto displacement within Syria and outside Syria,” he said.“So the humanitarian pretext for intervention is, in a way, adirect result of the Western intervention in Syria – by which theycontinue to send armed militants into Syria.”

Maintaining this bias, Britain and France in particular arguethat the opposition needs urgent help, and arming it to such anextent that it can overpower Assad’s forces would put an end to theconflict.
“You cannot equate a state that is being armed and defendingitself against external aggression and internal terrorism witharming militias,” Abdallah says. “You cannot strike abalance between a state and armed militias who areextremists.”

‘Overthrow scheme not working’

While Abdallah says British Foreign Secretary William Hague’srecent rhetoric comes at least partially as a result of“pressure from Gulf countries” and rumoredmulti-billion-dollar Qatari business contracts with the UK,political analyst Robert Harness says Western powers have simplystarted panicking that their plan to get rid of the Assadgovernment is failing.
“Clearly Britain, France and probably behind them America aregetting panicky about the fact that this scheme of overthrowingBashar Assad is just not working,” Harness told RT. “Butcertainly if they start pouring weapons in a big way, obviously itis going to make a difference.”
Such a decision would bring an unprecedented escalation in theconflict, but wouldn’t bring a resolution any closer.
“One third, at least, and probably a majority of the Syrians,do not want to be living in a Sharia state, so there is going to bea desperate fight whatever happens,” Harness explained, addingthat Iran won’t be on the fence should such a scenario arise.
“You can be sure that Iran equally will say: ‘If this is theway Britain and France are going to behave, we shall do as much.’And they are a lot closer to Syria than Britain andFrance.”

Full-scale intervention?

France however might actually not be so far from Syria as itcurrently appears, Harness admitted.
“A few months ago France said it was terribly worried aboutthe poor refugees, so they sent a hospital to Jordan,” Harnessnoted. “It just happened to be a military hospital.”
While at the time various analysts claimed it was a “foot inthe door,” just this week German media reported that the US istraining Syrian rebels to use anti-tank weapons at a camp inJordan.
“Now there are several different allied armies in Jordan, andindeed they are training up rebels there and the idea is that theyhad a Turkish front and now will have a Jordan front to distractthe Syrian government to take them from two flanks,” Harnesssaid.

In the meantime an attack on Syria from a third front in nearbyLebanon seems to be in full swing. The Syrian Foreign Ministryannounced on Friday that the flow of well-armed terrorist groupsfrom the neighboring state to Syria has significantly increased inthe recent days. The ministry said that “crowds of thoseterrorist groups are still present inside the Lebanese lands,”urging Beirut to stick to its international obligations and takecontrol of its borders.

‘Halting outside intervention is the only solution’

There still are those who realize, Abdallah says, that not asingle conflict in history has ended without negotiations. In theSyrian case, the talks would start the moment foreign interventionstops, he adds.
“It is never too late for dialogue,” Abdallah told RT.“The crisis in Syria is very complex. However, the solution maybe simple – only by halting and stopping intervention in Syria fromoutside. The minute the West and Turkey and Qatar and Saudi stopfueling the violence in Syria and stop sending jihadists, Syrianscan come to the table.”

The statements, views and opinionsexpressed in this column are solely those of the author and do notnecessarily represent those of RT.