Lebanese professor: Saudis carry out US plans for Syria

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Syria has been experiencing unrest in the past months, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The Arab League has decided to carry out an urgent mission to Damascus and transmit the Arab initiative to resolve the crisis.

The following is an interview with Mohsen Saleh, a Lebanese University professor, about the issue:

Q: The Syrian government claims that it has been the victim of foreign gangs and that they are trying to cause chaos in the country. How likely is that the case?

Saleh: Well, that is actually the case, because the Syrian government has been [trying] to catch these people, who smuggle these arms from Lebanon and from Turkey and probably from Iraq and from other places.

The Syrian government was able to put hand on these gangs and they imprisoned some of them and they confessed that they were financed by these two countries, at least, and some parties in Lebanon and in Iraq.

That is why we see Qatar and Saudi Arabia are really covering an American agenda, especially in Lebanon in order to put down the Syrian regime. That is why we see most of the Arabs who are pro-American policies in the region, after the victory of the resistance in Lebanon and after the victory of Hamas in Gaza, want to change the political environment in these places, especially in Syria.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar were with [former Egyptian dictator] Hosni Mubarak, the Americans and [former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidin] Ben Ali and that is why Ben Ali is in Saudi Arabia and they want Mubarak and [Yemeni dictator] Ali Abdullah Saleh to be in Saudi Arabia as well. They went to Bahrain to put down this revolution in Bahrain.

So, they should not [pretend] that they are pro-human rights and rights of expression or reforms. They do not like reforms. Saudis and Qataris do not like reforms in any of these countries because they are the most backwarded regimes, probably on the earth.

So, that is why the Syrians have the right to fight these gangs. They are not committing atrocities like what is happening in Bahrain by the Saudi hands and by the so-called the Jazirah (Island) Shield. They are killing people in Bahrain. That is what the Arab League should do. They should go to Bahrain not to Syria.

Q: In general, both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been active in the revolutions in the region. In Bahrain, both countries sent troops to crackdown on revolutionaries there. Qatar aided NATO in Libya and Saudi Arabia has given refuge to both the former Tunisian leader Ben Ali and Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. Why have both countries been so actively involved in these movements?

Saleh: First of all, these two countries have real treaties with the Americans in order to execute the American plans, which the Americans [themselves] cannot do. For example, the Americans have their base in Bahrain, the Fifth Fleet. They cannot go into Bahrain and kill people. So, they ask the Saudis to come to Bahrain and include the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council's members to go into Bahrain and kill the people.

Also in Yemen, they send the Saudis in order to ... prevent this kind of attack or this sympathy towards the Arab cause. So, they send the Saudis here and there.

Also in 2006, the Saudis and some other [Arab] regimes raised their voices against Hezbollah and in 2008 against Hamas and so on.

Now we have these two axes: The Americans who try to confiscate these revolutions and the Arabs, who are helping them (on the one hand) and Iran and Syria and the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon (on the other hand). Now Syria is helping the resistance. The Americans specially want to put down this [Syrian] regime and the connection between resistance and the Iranian revolution and the Iranian regime.

They should know now that Syria is not Bahrain and not Libya. Syrians are aware of these American and French plans.

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