US Created Syrian Conflict, Now It’s Time to Compromise and Fix Crisis

The West wants to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, because he is a Russian ally and one of the main opponents of Israel in the Middle East, Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos, the editor of Politics First Magazine, told Radio Sputnik.

The West, especially the United States, is responsible for creating chaos in the Middle East and North Africa that eventually resulted in the current refugee crisis in Europe. However, the mainstream Western media and journalists choose to ignore this, Dr. Papadopoulos said.

Earlier this week al-Assad spoke with the Russian media and blamed the West for orchestrating chaos in Syria, but failing to take responsibility for millions of Syrian refugees that were forced to leave their country as a result of the conflict.

"Assad is right. How many refugees were in Syria before the West started to support Islamists in Syria? None. But as soon as the West interfered the flow of refugees started," Dr Papadopoulos explained.

Right now, refugees are coming from Syria, Iraq and Libya. All these countries have a common denominator — they are all the victims of Western interference. The US government, in particular, thinks it's above international law and that it can overthrow foreign governments that it doesn't like to pursue its own interests, the expert said.

It shouldn't matter whether or not the US government likes al-Assad, or liked Muanmar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, because they were the legitimate leaders of their own countries. As soon as the United States removed Gaddafi and Hussein, their countries descended into chaos and Islamic extremists of all kinds took over the countries, turning millions of people into refugees, Dr Papadopoulos continued.

Since al-Assad is a Russian ally, Washington wants to remove him. Two other key reasons why the US government is so keen to overthrow al-Assad are because he is an opponent of Israel, America's main ally in the region, and a friend of Iran, Dr Papadopoulos explained.

Culturally and demographically, Syria is a very delicate and complicated country and if one interferes into this sort of a country, there bound to be "terrible repercussions," Dr Papadopoulos said.

Having created the conflict, now the US government has to sit down with al-Assad and try to find a working solution to solve the crisis. It's also crucial to have Russia as a mediator, since Damascus and Moscow are long-time allies and without the role of the Kremlin a deal won't happen.

 "You might not like each other, but you have to work with each other," Dr. Papadopoulos said, bringing up the example of Iran and how it was possible to solve the issue of Iran's nuclear program when everyone decided to sit down at the negotiations table.

Deals can be made, the US government just has to realize that it must learn to compromise with others, the expert concluded.