France’s military presence in Syria could serve as new form of imperialism: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Catherine Shakdam, director of the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies from London, about the presence of the French Special Forces in Syria without any coordination with the Syrian government.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems that Damascus is quite displeased with reports of the presence of French and German forces in northern Syria as stated in the foreign ministry statement. Talk to us more about the situation and if reports are true, this is clear violation of the serious sovereignty.

Shakdam: Absolutely I think that Damascus makes a good point that if France was indeed genuine when it comes to fighting terror and trying to help the Syrian army, then Paris would have coordinated with Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad because he continues to represent Syria’s legitimacy. But that point aside, we all know any way that I don't think that France and any Western capitals, for that matter, are very interested in fighting terrorism.

What they're trying to do is to justify military interventionism and to justify their presence in the Middle East all together. This is something that we need to recognize when we talk about Syria but not just Syria, we talk about Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain. Whatever it is whatever conflicts we’re dealing with, it's always the same. We always have arrogant Western powers who are trying to justify their presence, intervention, in foreign land by saying that they are trying to fight for the greater good and help the Syrian people.

I believe that if the Syrian people needed help, they would have called for help, and they have done so, when they turn to Hezbollah, they turn to Iran, they turn to Russia, because those countries and those powers actually respected Syria’s national sovereignty and they understood that whatever would happen in Syria would have to come from Syria and from the Syrian government.

Now if you look at the French presence and, again, this is not an allegation this is an actual confirmation the French themselves have said that they do have Special Forces there. They have Special Forces interestingly enough in what you would say in Kurd territory, where the Kurds are the majority, which I found really interesting.

If you just look back at the very history of Syria and how the Middle East was broken up by the British and the French on the wake of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, I believe that the French are here trying once again to justify their presence and to try to hang on to a remnant of power in the Middle East, where they’re trying to remain still relevant even though they have been kicked.

And France has withered, I would say, politically when it comes to the projection of power outside their territory. So I think there is a desperate race here to try to cling on to what once was the colonial empire forms. Again if they can't have their way with Daesh, what they will try to do is the balkanization of the Middle East beginning with Syria. And you could see the sudden friendship and interest in the Kurds could actually be the premise of a desire or the promotion of the balkanization of Syria to try to break it up, alleging ethnicity and alleging that what they're trying to do is to break up Syria alongside the sectarian or ethnic map.

This is the narrative that they’re now trying to build again using counter-terror as a kind of flag to carry the covered agenda. This is quite a pathetic attempt, I would say, because I think that everyone at this stage, at this point in time, is actually seeing through the line the deceit but this is quite dangerous still because no one is reacting to it. So it's one thing to talk about and other to actually politically react and prevent yet again a form of new imperialism. And this desire that Western powers have to actually dictate on to foreign countries their future.

Syria belongs to the Syrian people and if it is federation that they want, then be it, but it has to be their choice, it has to come from Damascus, it has to come from the Syrian people and the legitimacy that they invested in Damascus in their president.

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