PROVIDED BY CNNNEXT.COM
Published on Aug 5, 2015
The United States and its staunch ally, Saudi Arabia, are playing a “double game” in Syria with regard to the ISIL terrorist group, says an American author.
Ralph Schoenman made the comments when asked about US warning that it will take additional steps if Damascus takes actions against the American-backed militants in Syria.
On Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the government of President Bashar al-Assad "should not interfere" in operations by the US-backed forces on the Syrian soil, which he alleged were part of a "strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," as promised by US President Barack Obama.
“The United States is in fact backing the fundamentalist groups that are targeting Bashar al-Assad,” Schoenman told Press TV on Tuesday.
“They’re not in fact directing their vain efforts against ISIS but more cooperating with the Turkish attacks upon the Kurds and in fact effectively undermining any effort to combat ISIS and what it represents,” he said, using another acronym for the terror network.
“The ISIS has been supported by the Saudis and the (United Arab) Emirates and the US intelligence as well,” he noted.
“It’s a double game that they play, they use these very destructive forces to undermine countries such as Iran and Syria and for that matter Iraq, so they pretend to be after ISIS but their actual actions on the ground betray another story.” “The real target is the government in Damascus and that’s where they continue to maneuver to undermine and to destroy,” Schoenman said.
Syria has been battered by foreign-backed militancy since 2011, creating a haven for Takfiri terrorists to come together as ISIL.
Analysts say that ISIL has been used as a pretext by Washington and some of allies to carry out airstrikes in Syria apart from backing the so-called moderate militants there.
Former CIA Contractor Steven Kelley charged that the US is entering a “new stage” by threatening to use air power against Syrian forces in defense of the militants.
“I think it’s still pathetic and shows that the American efforts to topple Assad seem to be reaching a new stage,” he told Press TV on Monday.
