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US only after ousting Assad in Syria: Analyst

Monday, 23 May 2016 4:46 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 23 May 2016 4:46 AM ]

Joseph Votel, the commanding general of the US Central Command, speaks to reporters during an unauthorized trip to Syria, May 21, 2015. (Photo by AP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, a political analyst, and Nabil Mikhail, a professor at George Washington University, to discuss a secret visit by Joseph Votel, a senior US commander, to Syria, without receiving a permission from the Syrian government.

Dean says the United States respects the sovereignty of other nations only when there is “a government suitable to the US,” and if not, he says, the American authorities feel they have the right to “make adjustments” to that government.

He says American officials refuse to coordinate with the Syrian government for their military presence in the Arab country.

The US promised its regional allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to pursue regime change in Syria, Dean says, adding that the US has done nothing to stop the shipping of arms and the dispatching of terrorists from Turkey into Syria.

American officials just want to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of power to make their regional allies pleased, he says.

Mikhail, for his part, believes the presence of a US commander in Syria was not aimed at preparing the ground for “a major offense.”

“Russia is watching the situation very carefully over Aleppo, and America for sure does not want to have some sort of head collision with the Russians in Aleppo,” he says.

The situation is very precarious, though, he says.

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