'NATO, US, Israel know they have met their match with Syria'‎

[James H. Fetzer]

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/07/01/248847/removing-assad-will...

Press TV has interviewed James Fetzer, professor and philosopher, Madison about the strength of the Syrian position on its own and in partnership with Russia, China and Iran. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. 

Press TV: We have US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton literally saying that Assad must go. How likely will there be regime change in Syria? 

Fetzer: Extremely unlikely. Syria has of course a fascinating geo-political location bordering Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. It has a strong defensive alliance with Iran, which was affirmed in 2005 and again in 2009 and I’m sure it is as strong today as ever before. 

It also is a strong trading partner with Russia, which not only has acquired very sophisticated military equipment including anti-missile and anti-aircraft batteries that are capable of shooting down cruise missiles and ICBM’s with NATO forces finding they would be losing planes on the right and on the left; but also hosts Moscow’s only Mediterranean naval base - actually it’s only military base outside the former Soviet Union in Tardis on Syria’s southern coast. 

This is not going to happen. 

Press TV: How do you assess Syria’s neighbor’s role in exacerbating the situation in Syria? 

Fetzer: I think the entire agenda has been motivated by Israeli leaders - by the Israeli master plan, to break all the strong sophisticated Arab States into little state-lets especially over conflicting sectarian lines as occurred in Iraq. 

But when Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Benjamin Netanyahu it was undoubtedly to tell him that Russia would not tolerate an Israeli attack on Iran. And while Netanyahu tried to put a smile on the visit and suggest that they both agreed that there was a major issue here, I have no doubt that in fact it was actually a feat for Netanyahu’s aggressive policies against Iran. 

If Syria has this sophisticated military equipment imagine what Iran will have because it also has the sophisticated anti-ship missiles in the world that could sink every ship in the [Persian]Gulf or in the Mediterranean. I mean it would be a stupid thing to do, not that world leaders have not made blunders before, but this would be a travesty; it would be something that could be irredeemable and it might even precipitate World War III. 

Press TV: How effective has the United Nations been in this scenario? 

Fetzer: Typically the United Nations has been compromised because of action that requires support from all the members of the Security Council and neither Russia nor China is going to authorize a UN strike against Syria where I have no doubt that Barack Obama would not take any military step against Syria without United Nations Security Council approval. 

Therefore I believe we are at a stalemate and frankly it’s for the better of the Middle East because removing Assad would increase chaos in the country; it would elevate Islamic extremism. Assad like Saddam Hussein was a secularist and they were both good for the Middle East as was in fact Muammar Gaddafi good for Africa. 

But the same kind of stupidity that led to the attack on Libya I am very confident is not going to happen here. NATO and the US and Israel know they have met their match.