Pressing for more sanctions against Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, 40-year-old Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi threw cold water on French and German plans to punish Russia. Hitting President Barack Obama with a pie-in-the-face, Renzi blocked German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande from selling the White House position of applying more Russian sanctions. After opposing various Saudi-funded Syrian rebels for nearly six-years, Russian President Vladimir Putin put his foot down Aug. 28, 2015 backing al-Assad with blistering air strikes to shore up the Damascus regime. Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry railed against Putin for going after Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed rebels seeking to topple al-Assad’s Shiite government. EU officials have been duped by Obama and Kerry into backing the Saudi proxy war.
Italy’s Renzi sees through the outrageous U.S. foreign policy that backs a reckless band of Sunni rebels seeking to establish a Wahhabi state in Damascus. Renzi and other EU officials should wake up to what the U.S. did toppling Iraq’s Saddam Hussein April 10, 2003, spreading death, destruction and anarchy in the Middle East. Now Obama, Kerry and Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton seek to repeat the same disaster in Iraq by toppling al-Assad in Syria. EU officials should rethink their blind support of a failed U.S. foreign policy. Instead of making Russian President Vladimir Putin the enemy, the U.S. and EU should see the wisdom of letting al-Assad stay put, consolidating efforts to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May must stop drinking U.S. State Department Cool-Aid and figure out how to end the war.
Backed by Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Turkey, the nearly six-year-old proxy war against has killed over 300,000 Syrians, displaced another 12 million to neighboring countries and Europe and driven the U.K. out of the EU June. 21. Meeting in Brussels, EU officials need to see the reality of what’s causing the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII, now threatening the EU. “I think that to refer in the text to sanctions makes no sense,” said Renzi, telling his EU colleagues that he refuses to sanction Russia. If the EU had any clarity on Syria, they should sanctions Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S. for funding, arming and backing rebels to topple al-Assad. Syrian and Russian bombing of Eastern Aleppo isn’t targeting civilians, it’s targeting Saudi-U.S.-Turkey backed rebels occupying Syria, a sovereign country. Instead of pointing fingers at Putin, the EU should look at Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.
Meeting in Berlin with Putin, Merkel and Hollande and other EU leaders should look at how to end the Syrian War, not scapegoat Russia. “At this stage, there are no sanctions linked to the Russian intervention in Syria,” Hollande told the press. EU leaders haven’t considered that al-Assad has a right to defend his country against terrorists backed by foreign governments. Whether or not the U.S. or EU dislikes al-Assad, they have no right to finance a proxy war to topple his government. “If there are new massacres, bombing, we’ll need to start by sanctioning the Syrians who are responsible, if it continues bombing, Russia will also expose itself to a response from the EU, but we’re not there yet,” said Hollande, not admitting that Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Turkey keep the Syrian War going. Instead of blaming Russia or Syria, U.N. officials should tell the rebels to get out of Aleppo.
Whatever atrocities occur in Syria, the EU must admit that al-Assad, and his allies Russia and Iran, has defended himself for nearly six years against a determined Saudi-funded proxy war against his Shiite government. It’s OK for the EU to disagree with the White House, especially over Syria. When the U.K. opted out, it was a rude awakening for EU officials, wondering whether other EU countries would follow Britain out of the bloc. “You know I personally tend to focus the fact that the European Union doesn’t only have sanctions in the toolbox, we have many other instruments we can use,” said EU High Commissioners Federica Mogherinin, leaning away from more sanctions. Mogherini needs to be honest about the role Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Turkey play in keeping the war going, funding various rebel groups to topple al-Assad’s Syrian government.
Instead of debating more sanctions toward Russia and Syria, the EU should debate the merits of a six-year-old Saudi proxy war that has delivered only death, destruction and anarchy to the region. If the EU really wants to end the Syrian War, they need to stop pointing fingers at Putin and look no further that Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Turkey. Getting Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed rebels out of Aleppo would be the fastest way to end the siege and collateral damage. Resisting the proxy war for nearly six years, al-Assad showed the kind of resiliency not seen in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, all falling to the 2011 Saudi-funded Arab Spring. With Russia and Iran on al-Assad’s side, he’s managed to turn the proxy war around, despite promises from 56-year-old Saudi Foreign Minster Adel al-Jubeir that the war won’t end until al-Assad leaves Damascus—proving the Saudi involvement.
