Russian Foreign Ministry on Syria, US INF Treaty Breach, and Western Double Standards

Russian Foreign Ministry on Syria, US INF Treaty Breach, and Western Double Standards

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (MZ below) commented on endless war in Syria.

Idlib province remains the country’s main hotspot because of US-supported terrorists infesting the area.

They’re conducting “aggressive raids in the de-escalation zone and beyond,” MZ explained — supported by the US, NATO, Israel, the Saudis, the UAE and Turkey.

MZ: “On August 16–19, terrorists carried out six attacks in the south of the demilitarized zone, using (Western, Turkish, Israeli supplied) tanks, armored vehicles, multiple launch rocket systems, mortars, antitank missile systems, ‘jihadmobiles’ and pickup trucks with machine guns,” adding:

In August alone so far, they killed and injured scores of soldiers and civilians. Government forces counterattacked effectively, “liberating 10 villages” in the province. 

On Thursday, AMN News reported that government forces advanced along the Hama-Idlib axis, seizing several sites from jihadists.

They suffered “setbacks at the hands of the Syrian Army; this includes the loss of the strategic city of Khan Sheikhoun.”

US-supported Jaysh Al-Izza terrorists may be “dissolving itself after suffering a series of losses at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Hama and southern Idlib.”

If true, it’ll be “a major loss for the militant forces, as Jaysh Al-Izza was once one of the most powerful groups in the northwestern region of Syria.”

On Friday, Southfront reported that government forces and allied fighters “liberated  the northern Hama pocket, including the towns of Kafr Zita, Lataminah and Morek.”

On Thursday, Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan discussed ongoing fighting in Idlib, a Kremlin statement saying:

Both leaders “agreed to step up joint efforts to eliminate the terrorist threat coming from the area (Idlib) and implement the Sochi Memorandum signed on September 17, 2018.”

Russia and Syria observed what was agreed on. Turkey breached it straightaway, supporting terrorists in Idlib, supplying them with heavy and other weapons, letting them move freely cross-border between both countries.

Government forces surrounded an illegally established Turkish “observation post” in northern Syria. 

Ankara’s foreign ministry said Turkish forces aren’t leaving, ignoring their illegal presence, adding that the issue is being discussed with Russia and Iran, leaving unexplained how its forces intend to operate under these conditions and what justifies their illegal presence.

MZ discussed Thursday’s Security Council session, called for by Russia and China on “US plans to develop and deploy ground-based intermediate-range missiles,” breaching the 1987 INF Treaty the Trump regime abandoned.

Intending to deploy “intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific…is just the first step, and in the future, these US weapons may appear in other regions as well, including Europe,” said MZ, adding: 

“Such moves lead to the escalation of international tensions, which we have talked about more than once, particularly in recent times and with our Chinese partners.”

Trump regime hardliners Pompeo, Bolton and their henchmen want all arms control constraints eliminated — so the US is free to develop and deploy whatever weapons of mass destruction it wishes anywhere worldwide.

The session achieved nothing toward curtailing recklessly dangerous Trump regime actions.

Censorship is the new normal in the US. Dark forces threaten speech, media, and academic freedoms. 

Social media, Google, and other tech giants are complicit in a campaign to suppress content conflicting with the official narrative.

What’s going on is the hallmark of totalitarian rule – controlling the message, eliminating what conflicts with it, notably on major geopolitical issues.

MZ discussed false “accusations against Russia coming in from the West about Russia allegedly suppressing freedom of speech and persecuting journalists…oblivious to what is happening” in the US and other Western countries.

“Russia is a sovereign state and an active member of the international community, which conscientiously is fulfilling its international legal obligations. These unsupported and unsubstantiated accusations against a sovereign state are untenable,” she added.

The Trump regime considers English language Russian media RT and Sputnik foreign agents — because they report information conflicting with the official narrative its hardliners want suppressed.

MZ: After unacceptably treating them this way, “their journalistic activities (in the US) are obstructed to the point where they almost come to a halt…under the (phony) pretext of fighting the Kremlin propaganda.”

The same thing is happening in Britain — under the Theresa May regime and its BoJo successor, the US and UK operating as fascist police states, pretending otherwise.

France is also guilty, MZ saying it’s been “withholding press cards to Sputnik and RT journalists, and they are systematically denied accreditation for official events and are regularly subjected to special control measures when crossing the French border, even when traveling within the EU,” adding:

“Berlin is also trying hard to turn the Russian media into a threat in the eyes of the local audience.”

Truth-telling is considered unacceptable in the West, especially on geopolitical issues.

MZ: “(T)here are a number of Russian media outlets that have come under a whole gamut of punitive measures ranging from unsubstantiated and aggressive public rhetoric and persecution of specific journalists to financial and legal restrictions.”

It’s obvious “that rhetoric about the Western countries being concerned about observing democratic principles and freedom of speech is either demagogy, hypocrisy, or a tool to suppress dissent.”

It’s all of the above.

Note: Google tries to prevent readers from accessing the Russian Foreign Ministry website by making it harder to locate easily — and calling it “not secure” when it’s nothing of the sort — maybe intending to ban it altogether on orders from Washington.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

 

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”