French Diplomat: US Surprised at Events in Syria
Nidal Hmedeh - Paris
A French diplomat working in a Middle Eastern country said that the United States "was surprised by the Syrian events".
After the war grew broader and more intense, the US - according to the diplomat - believed "the time was right to inflame clashes between Hizbullah and al-Qaeda on Syrian territories."
"This is what the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was implementing for more than two years in cooperation with Gulf countries and Turkey," the diplomat argued.
Moreover, the diplomat stated, "The French Embassies in the Middle East reported around 400 elements of Taliban in Pakistan entering Syria through Turkey."
"They arrived at a Turkish military airport on board two Saudi military planes, where they gathered at a training camp near Gaziantep under the supervision of Turkish intelligence before entering Syria," he added.
Furthermore, the diplomat believed that the French politics' mistake was its belief that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime will inevitably fall during 2012. In this light, some French officials released statements predicting the regime's fall in two months or two weeks, "as if bidding in the lottery, which made these statements lose any diplomatic credibility for France abroad and among the public opinion in France."
France continues its extreme stance from Syria despite warnings and objections issued from French political figures and French Intelligence reports on Takfiris and al-Qaeda's increasing control among the armed groups fighting President al-Assad's regime. To top it all, warnings from French politicians began publicizing on the danger of supporting the Syrian opposition.
Among the warnings was a statement issued by MP Jacques Myard, who is close to the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in which he said, "The masks are beginning to fall off the Syrian opposition. In any case a democratic movement in this opposition existed, it unfortunately does not comprise the majority, and must face extremists growing more violent and dangerous."
"This entails us not to dive into an adventurous policy of arming the Syrian opposition because of the threat of arms falling into the hands of extremists, which would ultimately lead to the region being set ablaze and the Middle East suffering chaos," Myard further added.
On this note, Paris seeks to maintain its role in the Syrian game by rising the political and media bars with Damascus and its ally Tehran.
Since May, Paris has been receiving Saudi royal delegations in an attempt to sell them French weapons, where the Commander of the Saudi National Guards Mutaib bin Abdullah visited Paris in June and met the French President Francois Hollande and his Minister of War Jean-Yves Le Drian. During the visit, leaks reported that Mutaib was determined to buy military planes for the Saudi National Guards that primarily consists of ground forces.
It seems that this decision aimed at boosting the National Guards against the Saudi Army that reports to the Minister of Defense and crown prince Salman bin Abdel Aziz, and against the police under the control of the Minister of Interior Mohammad bin Nayef. These preparations attempt to fortify areas of power, waiting the day that authorities are divided among the sons of the second generation of Abdel Aziz al-Saud.
Also, the French President recently visited Qatar for the same goal; selling French weapons to Doha after the al-Thani family preferred to buy British tanks instead of French Leclerc tanks, which infuriated French officials from Qatar's leaders.
Source: al-Ahed News, translated by website team
