Turkish, Saudi plans on Syria, stupid: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Navid Nasr, a political analyst, to discuss Turkish shelling of targets inside Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Russia says it is disappointed by what has come out of the UN Security Council. I am sure you are not surprised, but what has to happen now in order to try to get the necessary pressure to get Turkey to stop the shelling into Syrian territory?

Nasr: There is very little pressure that can be exerted by Russia specifically to get Turkey to stop. In fact, I would say, outside of NATO itself, I do not see anyone who is capable of exerting that kind of pressure on the Turkish government.

The US would literally have to directly step in and intervene and go out of its way to get Turkey to stop doing what it is doing right now along the Syrian border. I do not foresee that happening immediately just because for the obvious reason which is what Turkey is doing right now dovetails perfectly with US strategy for Syria in the short-term.

They still want that corridor linking Turkey and Syria to be open. Right now, if you look where the forces are arrayed along the Turkish-Syrian border, YPG and other Kurdish forces control most of the border but there is still a chunk directly north of Aleppo leading to the Turkish border and that is precisely... that area is precisely where the arms shipments and the militants are still flowing into Syria and this is why Turkey is going all out and this is why the US has so far at least not lifted a finger in order to stop what they are doing.

Press TV: With this situation, we have on the one hand Turkey shelling Syrian territory and then on the other hand we have Saudi Arabia talking about actually sending missiles to the so-called opposition, Syrian opposition on the ground there. On the other hand, we have a situation talking about talks and possible ceasefire. Where do you see this going? Are we going towards actually more of a lull in this? Are we going towards more of a peak in the fighting in Syria in your perspective?

Nasr: Well, my understanding is Russian-drafted ceasefire proposal was just recently rejected, so I do not know how serious the “coalition” against terrorism is right now with regards to actually resolving the conflict, actually, finding a peaceful solution. It seems more likely right now that they are trying to balance the facts on the ground more in their favor leading up to whatever it is going to happen.

Whether or not they are successful at that, who knows, but it does not look like things are going their way but they are doubling down with regards to some of the stupidity; and it really is a stupid move on the part of the Turks and the Saudis to threaten an actual military invasion, ground invasion of Syria; and it is even stupid for Turkey to do what they are doing right now —bombard the border and bombard Kurdish positions and a lot of these cities, towns and air bases that have been recaptured from the various “militant groups.”

So, who knows what is going to happen? But the height of stupidity would be for Saudi Arabia to actually arm these militants with surface-to-air missiles; anything that they do in that regard will directly come back to them and they will not be able to withstand anything that does come back to them along those lines.

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