Press TV The US and Saudi Arabia are playing “good cop, bad cop” on Syria, while both are funding and arming the militant groups fighting to overthrow the government, says a senior lecturer at University of Sydney.
“The story that they are portraying in the Western media is that they are supporting the ‘moderate rebels’ and other extremists are supported by someone else,” Tim Anderson said in a phone interview with Press TV.
“Well, that someone else happens to be their closest allies in the [Persian] Gulf, the Saudis in particular and Qatar also,” he added. “So the way I see it is they are playing a good cop, bad cop game.”
The United States has said that light arms are flowing to “moderate” militant groups in southern Syria and that Congress has approved funding for months of further deliveries, Reuters reports, citing American and European security officials.
“We know that Washington has been behind funding all of these groups from the very beginning, so it’s a deliberate game they are playing… they are trying to pretend they support ‘moderate’ groups and the Saudis are going off on their own supporting extremists,” Anderson said.
“It is not the case at all,” he said. “They are really working hand in glove.”
The latest round of peace talks, known as Geneva 2, ended inconclusively on January 31 amid sharp differences between representatives from the Syrian government and the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC).
The opposition and its Western supporters insist that President Bashar al-Assad must step down, giving way to the formation of a transitional government in Syria.
Militants said that virtually the moment the talks ended, the US started sending cash to their commanders in Jordan in order to “pressure Assad” in between the talks.
Further talks have been tentatively scheduled to start in the Swiss city of Geneva on February 10.
HJ/HJ
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/07/349677/us-good-cop-bad-cop-game-in-syria/
“The opposition and its Western supporters insist that President Bashar al-Assad must step down, giving way to the formation of a transitional government in Syria.”
Just WHO do the hell do these ‘people’ think they are, that they can DICTATE a mandate to the leader of a sovereign country NOT their own???
CHUTZPAH!!!
Does THAT tell you anything?