Turning the Saudi-funded proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on its head, Russian President Vladimir Putin made good on a promise to rid Syria of terrorists seeking regime change in Damascus. Since the so-called Arab spring began in Syria March 11, 2011, Saudi Arabia has backed, supported and funded the Sunni Wahhabi proxy war against al-Assad’s Shiite government. Saudi Arabia’s deep involvement in toppling al-Assad was laid bare Dec. 29, 2015 when Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir lamented the Dec. 25, 2015 death by a Russian air strike of 44-year-old Saudi-backed Syrian opposition leader Zahran Alloush. “We believe that assassinating Zahran Alloush or fighting leaders that have supported a peaceful solution and fighting Daesh [Islamic Staste] in Syria does not serve the peace process in Syria,” said al-Jubeir, admitting Saudi funded of Jaysh al-Islam.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry gave Riyadh uncritically backed Saudi’s proxy war against al-Assad. U.S. officials rubber stamped a Saudi policy of Damascus regime change. Only after Russia’s Sept. 30 involvement to defend al-Assad has the U.S. finally seen the light of the Saudi’s attempt to topple al-Assad’s Shiite regime. Opposed by Moscow and Tehran, Obama couldn’t see the hypocrisy of a regime change policy that put the U.S. on the side of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for Sept. 11. Only after Putin got serious about taking down the multiple Saudi-backed terrorist groups seeking to topple al-Assad did the White finally switch gears Dec. 15 after five years of backing the Saudi policy. Putin’s military commitment to saving al-Assad changed White House policy.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, while Secretary of State [Jan. 21, 2009 to Feb. 1, 2013], called for air strikes against Syria, fully backing Obama’s misguided regime change policy. Putin told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 28, 2015 only two days before launching air strikes in Syria, that toppling al-Assad would repeat the same mistakes in Iraq and Libya that opened the floodgates of Islamic terrorism in the Mideast and North Africa. Many of Hillary’s supporters tout her foreign policy chops but don’t acknowledge her backing of the Iraq War and toppling Libya’s tyrant Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Struggling GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush won’t admit that his brother, former President George W. Bush’s Iraq War, caused much of today’s Mideast chaos, preferring to blame Obama, who opposed the Iraq War, for failing break Bush’s agreement to leave Iraq in 2011.
Killing 57 and wounding 30 today with air strikes on al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra front prison, the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights blamed Putin for killing some 21 civilians and 29 al-Nusra militants. Obama and Kerry relentlessly blamed Putin for targeting Saudi-backed Syrian opposition groups seeking to topple al-Assad, insisting they should confine attacks only to ISIS. Putin made it clear to the U.N. Sept. 28 that there was not path to ending the five-year-old Syrian “civil war” until opposition groups stopped battling al-Assad. White House and State Department officials couldn’t explain why the U.S. sought to fight on the same side as ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, until Putin enlightened them in Moscow Dec. 15. Backing of Damascus regime changed has opened the door for more cooperation with Russia and Iran, two major keys to ending the Syrian conflict.
When Saudi Arabia beheaded popular Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr Jan. 2, it exposed the hypocrisy of the Kingdom’s misguided foreign policy of funding a proxy war in Syria that has killed some 250,000, displacing 2 million more to neighboring countries and Europe. Al-Nimr’s beheading caused uprising in Tehran and over the entire Shiite world. Instead of apologizing and admitting its mistake, the Kingdom broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran Jan. 3 for allowing the embassy attack. Prompting condemnations from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, al-Jubeir warned of new steps against Tehran. “We are looking at additona measures to be taken if [Iran] continues with its current policies,” said al-Jubeir, not saying what The Kingdom would do. Tehran cut ties with Riyadh and banned Shiite pilgrims from the Haj.
Escalating bombing of Saudi-funded Syrian opposition groups, Russia sent a loud message to U.N. Syrian peace envoy Staffan de Mistura’s attempt to convene as Syrian peace conference Jan. 25 in Geneva. Syrian government spokesman Walid Muallem said al-Assad’s Shiite government would insist on a full list of names of all participants. Battling too many fronts in Syria, Yemen and Tehran, Riyadh can’t continue to burn bridges without consequences. Obama has already switched gears on Damascus regime change. Unlike the U.S. that started bombing Syrian opposition groups Sept. 22, 2014, Putin targeted threats to the al-Assad regime with more ferocity. Before Dec. 15, 2015, Obama rubber-stamped the Saudi regime change policy and did little to target Syrian opposition groups. Heading into Geneva, the U.S. must not flip-flop back to the Saudi regime change policy.
