Voice of Russia
August 14, 2013
Lavrov never loses his cool, Obama infantile – Rick Rozoff
Recorded on August 9, 2013
Audio
Any U.S. claim that they are going to launch lethal drone strikes inside Syria as they did several months ago, without even the pretense of having the authorization of the government, is an act of yet further international lawlessness. Voice of Russia regular Rick Rozoff gives his analysis of the recent statements by the CIA with regard to Syria.
This is John Robles. I am speaking to Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and the International mailing list.
Robles: How do you think that’s going to play out with Russia, this new possible pretext? Do you think maybe they are looking for a way out, maybe, or…Do you think that’s possible?
Rozoff: There was a comment today by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, kind of a back-handed slap at the infantile and provocative antics of President Obama here, who has postponed, or has canceled, indeed, a proposed scheduled summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and Sergey Lavrov said about the meeting today, U.S. time, of the foreign and defense ministers, both secretaries or ministers of both countries, that, it’s time for a grown-up discussion on these issues and I think that, you know it, quite clearly, somebody like Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, he is a seasoned diplomat, he is mature, he is able to control his emotions and not to make unwarranted and almost childlike comments like the ones coming out of the White House…
Robles: No, I think he is a very true diplomat. I mean, I’ve been watching him for years and years, I’ve never seen him once…you know…
Rozoff: … lose his cool or say something untoward. You would have to define to Americans, certainly anyone 50 years of age or younger, what the word “diplomat” means. We’ve not seen any.
Robles: And it was wonderful, I am sorry, I just want underline it, it was wonderful today, because I actually heard him speak for the first time in English, and his English is wonderful.
Rozoff: I’ve never heard Lavrov speak in English, but there again… I can’t think of an American Secretary of State…
Robles: Perfect!
Rozoff: … who spoke a second language. That’s not necessary, if you’re the global empire. You know, your tributaries and vassals, to quote Zbigniew Brzezinski, have to speak your language. And pay you their tribute in the coin of the realm. They have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s in Caesar’s language moreover.
Robles: So, anyway, back to the CIA proclamation by the Deputy Director. What other insights can you tell us about his comments?
Rozoff: It could be a question, as we’ve alluded to, of kind of hedging his bets, should the worst case scenario, worst case scenario for the world and for Syria, not necessarily for the US, occur, and that there is a toppling of the government in Syria and then you have a new hotbed of terrorism that spreads across the border…we have to remember one of the three major fighting groups that the US and company are supporting. In addition to the Free Syrian Army and the Al Nusra Front, is something called the Islamic State of Iraq.
What you have are Sunni extremists, Wahhabi extremists, unquestionably supported, armed, financed by Saudi Arabia, fighting inside Syria.
So, not only perpetrating bombings and other killings of Shiite, Christians and other minorities inside Iraq, they are spreading this dubious jihad across the border into Syria and certainly into Lebanon. So, you know what the US may be doing is in the event the US would succeed in regime change in Syria, they have then already prepared the groundwork for saying, “See we warned you that certain unsavory elements might gain influence or come to the fore,” something of that sort…
Robles: O.K., so, no one is going to blame them for arming these enemies to begin with, right?
Rozoff: Yeah, they have plausible deniability, we warned you that they were not all a nice group of characters. However it was also roughly almost a year ago when the Obama administration, the White House, was talking about the necessity perhaps of waging drone warfare against some of their non-preferred fighters among the rebel groups within Syria, which I don’t think one was to have taken seriously at that time either.
What it was was that the US would reserve the right to launch drone or perhaps even cruise missile attacks inside the country, and then sugar-coat that by saying they are trying to weed out extremist elements amongst the rebel groups, the rebel armed groups fighting inside Syria.
Robles: Right.
Rozoff: But you know that no country has the right to state that they reserve the prerogative of launching lethal missile strikes inside the territory of any other country.
Robles: Sure, sure. No matter how you paint it, I mean, you can call ti a “preventive air strike” or “humanitarian invention”, or whatever you want to call it, but it is still an act of aggression, which is illegal under international law.
Rozoff: Sure, and we know that just in recent hours the U.S. has succeeded in killing some 34 people in Yemen in drone strikes, but the assumption, as in the case of the Yemen or Pakistan, is that the government at least passively permits the United States to do it, if it doesn’t acknowledge it is doing so. But, you know, in the case of Syria, self-evidently, they would not have the permission of the government.
So for the U.S. to claim they are going to launch lethal drone strikes inside Syria as they did several months ago, without even the pretense of having the authorization of the government, it’s an act of yet further international lawlessness.
Robles: Yeah, completely. Thanks a lot, Rick, it was a pleasure speaking to you.
Rozoff: Yes, same here, thanks.
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