An analyst says NATO missiles deployed in Turkey under the pretext of protecting Ankara against Syrian attacks are in actual fact aimed at Russia in pursuit of Israeli interests.
The comment comes as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance says it has made the first set of Patriot missiles operational on the Turkey-Syria border.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Admiral James Stavridis has backed the deployment of Patriot missiles, saying it shows the alliance’s willingness to defend allies facing threats.
Six batteries of the US-made missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, will be deployed in the southern city of Adana and the southeastern cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.
The Syrian government has censured the plan, calling it another act of provocation by the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Layos Szaszdi, political commentator in Washington to further discuss the issue. What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Szaszdi, we see foreign-backed insurgents literally killing civilians in Syria, execution style. Why has the international community remained silent on this and why isn’t it doing anything about it?
Szaszdi: Well, because they do support the rebels. They want them to succeed because their ultimate goal is to topple the government in Damascus and this is a broad coalition that includes Western powers headed or led by the United States and including France, United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey of course– a major spring board for the rebels.
And that’s why the Patriot missiles are being deployed in the regions where they are near the city of Adana, near the city of Kahramanmara because probably those areas, certainly the city of Adana were the US base of Incirlik Base are entry ports; from where? Well, not entry ports but staging points where supplies are provided to the rebels in Syria.
So because of this broad alliance or coalition including Western powers and Middle Eastern powers, Persian Gulf, Arab States of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, probably Israel also is supporting the rebels so that’s why they don’t denounce the crimes committed by the rebels particularly the al-Nusra front which by the way the United States has declared a terrorist organization.
So there is this common goal that unites the Saudis, the Israelis, the Turks, the Germans and the Americans which bring down the government in Damascus as part of the information war, the propaganda war.
They are not going to mention or accuse the rebels of committing crimes. Everything that is going wrong; any war crime that is being committed in Syria they are always going to be blame it on the government in Damascus.
Press TV: As far as the NATO Patriot missiles are concerned, you spoke about them, how should one interpret these missiles and of course where does the international law fit in this?
Szaszdi: Well, Turkey is a NATO member, they do have the right to deploy, these NATO allies, the US, the Netherlands, Germany (have the right to) to deploy these Patriot missiles which are regarded as a defensive weapon in the Eastern borders of Turkey.
Now of course it’s my belief that where the missiles are being deployed near the city of Adana, Kahramanmaras were the Germans missiles, two batteries of Patriot missiles are being deployed, they are being deployed there because it’s a staging point from where the rebels obtained supplies, weapons, and volunteers.
So they are military targets, that’s why they are deploying missiles in case that Syria supposedly would like to retaliate launching attacks against those staging bases from where the rebels are being fed with weapons, volunteers, supplies, and etcetera but of course Syria is not going to provoke NATO to intervene.
I would say that these Patriot missiles are part of an extension of the European missile defense system which is actually aimed against Russia and Iran and the Russians know it.
They know that this is an excuse, the deployment of the Patriot missiles claiming that it is to protect Turkey against Syrian missile attack or air attack but in fact it’s aimed against Russia and its part of a broader missile defense system that does not just include NATO European missile defense System but also Japan presumably.
And in the case of the Patriot batteries being deployed in Eastern Turkey they could be connected to the more sophisticated missile defense system which is the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system also known by its acronym (THAAD) and there is a fire control [system and a] radar for that missile system which is the AN/TPY-2 and that radar is mobile so supposedly now it’s pointing Iran since its mobile it can turned pointing Russia.
Why Russia? Because I believe that these European missile defense system including the Patriot batteries can be linked to that fire control radar I just mentioned, could be used to defend Israel in case that Israel would attack Russia for instance move their intercontinental ballistic missile force including the Jericho-III ICBM that can reach Moscow and St. Petersburg.
And Israelis have been targeting the Soviet Union since the late eighties presumably they’re still targeting Russia due to its support to Syria, to Iran for instance though it is a friendly nation. So presumably the missiles can be used against Russia too.
VG/JR
via PressTV – NATO missiles in Turkey shield Israel, a plot against Russia: Layos Szaszdi.
