WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Monday, the White House spokesperson confirmed that the United States is prepared to use military force where necessary to protect the trained and equipped Syrian opposition fighters that are battling the Islamic State.
“The decision is to provide support only for efforts by the rebel forces against the Islamic State. However, those forces also oppose the government of Syria, so the risk is created that the US will be supporting efforts against the government of Syria,” Ohio State University Professor Emeritus John Quigley told Sputnik on Monday.
Quigley asserted that if a conflict develops between Washington and Damascus, the United States “would in effect be helping the Islamic State” in its efforts against the Syrian government.
The professor noted that the Syrian government did not object to the US efforts against the Islamic State on its territory.
“But if the rebel forces attack not only ISIS [Islamic State], but the government, then the government may feel compelled to react.”
Quigley also said if such a scenario develops, Damascus might reconsider its earlier decision not to complain to the US Security Council about US activity on Syrian territory.
By making a policy shift while at the same time been given the right to use Turkish military air bases against the Islamic State, the Obama administration is stepping in the direction of joining Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Executive Intelligence Review Senior Editor Jeff Steinberg told Sputnik on Monday.
“The deal with Turkey was rotten in several other respects. The Erdogan government had been secretly colluding with ISIS [Islamic State], giving them border-crossing access and allowing AKP-linked black marketers to trade with ISIS [Islamic State].”
Ostensibly responding to several Islamic State attacks inside Turkey, Steinberg noted, Erdogan has “launched renewed warfare against the Kurds,” who have been the most effective ground fighting force against the Islamic State as evidenced in Kobani and Mosul.
“So in effect, Obama, by his orders, has fully aligned the US with the hardcore Salafist-backers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, to oust Assad and, ultimately, give ISIS [Islamic State] a beachhead on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.”
The US decision, Steinberg added, to authorize air power to defend the Syrian rebels against the government forces represents “a further betrayal” of the agreements discussed between the United States and Russia to revive the Geneva diplomatic process in Syria.
“With this implicit move against Assad, this will only further deepen the legitimate Russian distrust for everything Obama is doing. Ultimately, Kerry and the war-avoidance faction in the United States are being stabbed in the back by the President. The danger of general war is greatly advanced by this Obama move.”
The White House decision comes after a string of US defense officials said over the past months they would support coalition-trained rebels fighting the Islamic State, but did not have the authority to target Syrian regime forces if they attacked the rebels.
The United States plans to train and equip more than 5,000 allegedly moderate Syrian rebels to take on the Islamic State, but has only graduated 60 through its train-and-equip program.
Last month, the United States and Turkey announced a joint plan to provide cover to Syrian rebels from the air to help them seize control of more Syrian territory from the Islamic State.
Peskov stressed that US military involvement in Syria was one of the major differences between Russia and the United States on the four-year Syrian war. "And this is absolutely no secret. We have never hushed up these differences," Peskov added.
Moreover, the danger remains that US-made military hardware could continue to fall into the hands of the Islamic State as it has in the past.
