MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – US policy with regard to Syria could be interpreted as an attempt to invade the country and overthrow President Bashar Assad under the pretext of fighting terrorism, Aleksander Ignatenko, head of the Russian Institute for Religion and Politics, told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
“Right now a situation is emerging where the actions of America could be interpreted in a way that suggests that they are trying to fight a genie that they have let out of a bottle. Let me rephrase this. They are trying to use the real threat of terrorism in Syria, Iraq and the entire Middle East to invade Syria,” Ignatnko said at a round table discussion organized by RIA Novosti.
Ignatenko noted that the United States decided to become involved in Syrian affairs with the alleged aim of fighting terrorism after Islamic State (IS) militants released a video online which captured the execution of American journalist James Foley.
Similar executions took place before Foley was executed, however, the United States remained silent because it was Bashar Assad’s people who were getting killed, Ignatenko said.
Foley’s death allowed US President Barack Obama to get public and Congressional approval for US surveillance flights in Syria, according to the expert.
Speaking about the IS in general, Ignatenko stressed that the organization presents a real threat to a number of countries, including the United States, UK and Germany.
The IS, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), is a radical Sunni group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it started launching attacks in northern and western Iraq. Later that month, the radicals seized the Iraqi city of Mosul and announced that they had established a caliphate on the territory under their control.
In August, the United States started launching air strikes against IS positions in Iraq, as part of an operation, which, according to US President Barack Obama, is aimed at protecting American personnel in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region Irbil, as well as preventing the “genocide" of Iraqi religious minorities.
On August 19, IS militants released a YouTube video showing a masked man beheading James Foley, who was taken prisoner in Syria in November 2012.
Foley was killed in revenge for US airstrikes against IS positions in northern Iraq, the journalist’s executioner said in the video. The Islamic State also claimed to be holding another American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff, who appears at the end of the video.
IS militants currently control hundreds of square miles of territory in Syria and Iraq, but the group’s exact size remains unknown.
The IS has been added to terrorist organization lists by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United Nations.
