Mark Weber: US' efforts to overthrow Assad wrongheaded

Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review from Berkeley, was interviewed by Press TV about the situation in Syria's Aleppo.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Reports describe the humanitarian situation in Aleppo dire. How critical was the opening of these corridors for the civilians that are trapped there?

Weber: Everyone should welcome the opening of these corridors. It's also very encouraging that the United Nations and some aid agencies have given cautious approval to this new Syrian initiative. This is all to the good. Unfortunately though, these safe passage corridors and similar humanitarian efforts in Aleppo are likely to have only limited effectiveness or success at least for the time being, given, as your correspondent pointed out, the hold that the militants still have in the eastern part of the city, and given that fierce ground fighting including airstrikes are continuing. And several different groups are still contesting that. So that's going to mean that these efforts, as welcome as they are, are likely not to be as effective. That's why the news reports show that so far only relatively small numbers of civilians and rebel fighters have been able to make use of these new safe passage of corridors.

Press TV: You feel many of these civilians will be trapped there by the militants until they're confronted in the streets of Aleppo by Syrian armed forces.

Weber: Unfortunately, the terrible ordeal of the people of Syria is continuing and the solution seems to be a military one. I mean, the developments, this one in recent months and weeks, show once again that any viable or lasting resolution of this terrible conflict must include acceptance by all the major powers of the central indispensable role of the Syrian government and the Syrian armed forces as well of course of the role of Russia and Iran, which have been supporting Syria. And they also show that the efforts by the United States government and others to instead ignore this reality and try to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad are not only wrongheaded, unrealistic, but also inhumane because they have the effect … prolonging the conflict with the terrible humanitarian consequences for the people of Syria.

Press TV: Do you feel the militants will take advantage of the amnesty that was extended by President Assad to lay down their arms? Do you think their foreign backing might discourage them from doing so given how strategic Aleppo is for this fight?

Weber: The trend of course in recent weeks and months has been that the militants are losing ground, the government forces have been gaining ground, that's been the trend. And of course as that trend continues, more and more of the militants will take advantage especially of this new amnesty proposal offer made by the government for militants to lay down their arms. And so that's probably going to be the continuing development in the weeks ahead.

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