The West Seeks Destruction of Muslim Nations

Here is the link to my recent interview with Press TV on the conflict in Syria. The audio connection is not the best. It was our first time trying Skype. There is a written text version which contains a number of errors, no doubt, due to the poor quality of the audio. I would have preferred if the title said, "West seeks to weaken Arab and Muslim Nations" which is, I think a more  accurate title for the interview.    I have taken the liberty of editing the transcript to correct a few errors in transcription. 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/256059.html 
Ed Corrigan

West seeks destruction of Muslim nations: Analyst

An interview with Edward Corrigan, human rights and international lawyer, from London, Ontario

US Republican Congressman Ron Paul has warned that his country is driving Syria into a war by interfering with the ongoing unrest in the Middle East nation.

“Last week the House passed yet another bill placing sanctions on Iran and Syria, bringing us closer to another war in the Middle East,” Paul wrote in an article on the Information Clearing House website.

“When will we learn our lesson and stop intervening in conflicts we don’t truly understand, conflicts that have nothing to do with American national interests?” Paul asked in his article.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Edward Corrigan, human rights and international lawyer, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, the residents want to go back to their homes in areas that have been declared safe by the military and government in Syria, but they are being stopped by the insurgents: what do you make of this? What do they have in stopping civilians from returning to their homes?

Corrigan: The insurgency is trying to maintain the position that they have a lot of support with the population. They don’t really do not want the World to see refugees going back to areas that are now under the control of the Syrian government.

It undermines their political position and also what their propaganda is saying. The fact that citizens want to go back to areas that are under control of Bashar’s government, you know, directly contradicts their position that the majority or many Syrians are opposed to the government.

In fact, there is a lot of support for the Bashar regime. I think most of the Syrian population is opposed to the foreign backed parties that are trying to destroy Syria by provoking a civil war.

Press TV: There are some analysts that say that it is in the strategic interest of the West as well as its insurgents to continue a flow of refugees because is sort of gives an impression of a humanitarian disaster in Syria to the outside world and create a consensus for regime change and intervention. How do you interpret this?

Corrigan: I agree with you completely. There’s this whole new mechanism of humanitarian intervention, is really disguised for some other policies.

If there’s refugees or real alleged human rights violations then it does undermine the legitimacy of the regime and it provides the political support for other actions.

But this whole humanitarian intervention is really hypocritical. There’s no humanitarian intervention against Bahrain or Saudi Arabia which are suppressing demonstrators. There’s a massive movement of Salafis, and other al-Qaeda and Sunni extremists, which are brought in from Libya and elsewhere to try to bolster the opposition.

In fact, without that support and without the support of Washington’s powers, the fight would not even be occurring because the regime is very stable and has support of the Christian minorities, the Alawite…the Kurds and actually a large percentage of the Sunni population that appreciates the stability that the Baathist regime has brought to Syria.

Of course, they don’t want to see their country, their homes destroyed, their family members and relatives and other members of the community slaughtered in what is really a senseless war that accomplishes no purposes for the Arab population, the Muslim population, but supports interests of other parties.

Press TV: As this fighting continues in various parts of Syria and the government tries to rid the country from insurgents, the West and its allies are continuing to support them materially, that is. Is the West's desire to see Assad go worth the human cost that its coming at?

Corrigan: No. The West is really not concerned about the human cost. They want the Arab or Muslim states weakened, and if they can be destroyed, and if they can pit the various ethnic and religion communities against each other, they can just sit back and watch as Syria will be destroyed much like the way Iraq was.

Lebanon rebuilt itself and I think the Israelis and other people would like to see Lebanon fragmented into sectarian fighting that occurred from 1975 into the 90s. They accomplished that with Iraq, and now they’re trying to do the same into Syria. It was a lot of the opposition that was brought in from the Sunni community and other groups.

There’s actually a documentation that French troops have been captured in Syria, and a Turkish general was captured in Syria. There are reports saying that there are French and even NATO troops that are actively engaged in the sort of insurgency and attacks against the Syrian government.

Some of the stuff is clearly beyond the capability of regular rebels. Where are they getting tanks? Where are they getting surface-to-air missiles? This can only happen with the support of an organization like NATO, Turkey or Saudi Arabia and Qatar or other parties that are intervening.

This is not for a democracy of Syria. This is not to bring the end of the Bashar regime. This is to cripple Syria and to fragment it, and to prevent it from being part of a region with an element of stability.

Of course, Syria has been a strong supporter of Hezbollah and also supporter of Iran. They want to undermine this connection, and support of the interests of Israel, and more important the support of the West where they want control the oil and the resources, and fragment the area in order to make it easier to control, and pitting groups against each other -- an age old divide and conquer strategy that the British have perfected and certainly as old as the Roman Empire.