Possible US/Russia War Over Syria?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Though unlikely, it’s dangerously possible.
At a closed-door Thursday Security Council session on Syria, Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya urged Washington and its partners to drop plans for escalated aggression.
Otherwise, direct military confrontation between Moscow and Washington is possible, he warned, stressing:
The situation is more dangerous because Russian military personnel are in harm’s way, adding:
“The immediate priority is to avert the danger of war. We hope there will be no point of no return.”
“We cannot exclude any possibilities, unfortunately, because we saw messages that are coming from Washington. They were very bellicose.”
“The threat to international peace and security is a violation of the UN charter. We’re very concerned with the situation and this dangerous escalation.”
Calling on “the US and its allies (to) refrain from military action against the sovereign (Syrian) state” fell on deaf ears in Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv.
On Thursday, Trump met with his war cabinet, saying a decision on Syria is coming “fairly soon.”
Another Security Council session on the issue is scheduled for Friday, certain to achieve nothing like earlier ones. They’re little more than airing of opposite views with no conclusions.
Nor would it matter if any resolutions were adopted. Washington does what its please, pursuing its imperial agenda - international law, norms and standards, along with constitutional and US statute laws excluded from it decision-making.
On Thursday, Sweden proposed a Security Council resolution, calling for UN Secretary-General Guterres to send a high-level disarmament team to Syria to address “all outstanding issues on the use of chemical weapons once and for all.”
Few SC members supported the idea, Nebenzya saying “in the circumstances we find ourselves now, this is not an immediate priority.”
OPCW inspectors are coming to Douma. Given the organization’s deplorable subservience to Western interests, their findings aren’t likely to change US plans.
Trump’s new national security advisor John Bolton is a lunatic fringe Russophobic supporter of endless wars of aggression.
Secretary of state designee Mike Pompeo matches his extremism - promoting wars, disdaining peace, on board for escalated aggression on Syria, along with “confront(ing) (Russia) at every vector, cyber, economic, et cetera,” adding “(w)e need to make sure Putin doesn’t succeed.”
Escalated US-led aggression on Syria appears virtually certain, how far Trump’s willing to go the only likely uncertainty.
What follows ahead depends on how Russia responds, or fails to - confronting US aggression forcefully or remaining passive.
If Washington isn’t challenged now, expect things to get much worse ahead.
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