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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: KSA nervous about Syria developments: Analyst Interview with Mark Dankof Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Dankof, a political commentator from San Antonio, about Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud’s remarks that Riyadh plans to make a major shift from its alignment with Washington, frustrated with US inaction on Syria and its warming toward Iran. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview. Press TV: Riyadh seems to be quite serious about what it’s calling a shift in policy, but John Kerry has ruled out any serious conflict of interest. How serious do you see the current disagreements that have been voiced by Saudi Arabia? Dankof: I think in principle the United States is fully in league with the Saudis in desiring regime change in Syria. The United States also wants to interrupt Iran’s civilian nuclear program. That’s clear. But the question is how it’s going to be done. The fact of the matter is when it comes to involving the United States in a surrogate military conflict in Syria and ultimately with Iran at the behest of both the Saudi Arabians and the Israelis, the American people have indicated in poll after poll they want nothing to do with this. And the fact of the matter is - and it’s one of the things that has the Saudis especially nervous now - is that in the wake of this government shutdown travesty in the United States and what people see as the danger that all of this poses to the legitimacy of the American dollar, they are presently holding something like 690 billion dollars in foreign assets that are largely denominated in the American dollar. And it seems to me the American dollar in turn is tied to all kinds of things in the way of war and borrowing that is in the interests of a few people, but is not in the interests of the majority of us either here in the United States or in the Middle East. And so, both the United States and Saudi have a problem on their hands in regard to what they would like to do, but in regard as well to the amount of opposition that they are both facing - in the United States as far as the American people are concerned and also in Central Asia generally as people are looking at this whole situation of supporting a situation in Syria that could result in a wider regional conflict, maybe even world war III. More people find this not to be very palatable. Press TV: Do you think that this division that we’re hearing of is going to affect these solutions that Geneva II is expected to reach? Saudi Arabia seems to be insistent on its military approach toward the conflict. We saw John Kerry saying that we don’t think a military option is viable. So, how do you think it’s going to affect that? (Question then repeated) Dankof: Well, I think this whole situation in Geneva II is quite interesting. In the first place, I would respectfully disagree with Ambassador Murphy over who it was that utilized these chemical weapons in Syria. I, in fact, agree with Vladimir Putin and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov that all the circumstantial evidence points to the people that Saudi Arabia has been utilizing in Syria as being behind this chemical weapons attack and that it was basically a false flag that was designed to bring the United States and the Europeans and others into Syria militarily on the side of the people the Saudis have been backing. The fact of the matter is that strategy failed, it didn’t work. And what we now have is a circumstance where clearly with what’s going on in Geneva, you have the United States and the Saudi Arabians, I think in principle committed together to the idea that there should be a regime change in Syria, but at this point it’s an open question as to how they achieve it at this point. And I do think that Vladimir Putin’s involvement in this has been very much the wild card in causing the United States to blink. Because based on the statements that Mr. Putin has made and his foreign minister have made up until this point I think an increasing number of people in the United States and around the world began to perceive that the Russians might not just stay out of this one as they have in these last couple of American military interventions in that part of the world. So, that wild card in conjunction with the threat of a wider regional war I think played a major role in the development of a lot of domestic opposition to these policies in the United States. Press TV: What do you think is at stake for Saudi Arabia and do you think that the United States is going to consider all that was mentioned there by Mr. Murphy? Dankof: This is where Saudi policy and Israeli policy coincide completely in regard to their mutual agreement it seems to me and mutual desire that there be regime change in Iran. The present situation in Syria is nothing more than a prelude in their thinking to the eventual achievement of a regime change in Tehran. The fact of the matter is that the United States and Israel have not figured out quite how to do this, especially since Iran has continued with what is its right to continue with as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The other thing is that the American public has figured out that the Iranians would be a far more formidable foe in an armed conflict than has been sold to them by the Israeli lobby in the United States. Here we have a situation. I think where the question is not as much whether or not the United States and Iran are warming up to one another as much as it is a situation where at least a few people in Washington and the Obama administration - and I think frankly more than a few people in the intelligence community and in the military community that aren’t talking publicly for obvious reasons - recognize that an open conflict with Iran could bring about a series of unintended consequences upon the United States and upon Israel that make this a policy worth rethinking. This is one time where I think Barak Obama has correctly exercised caution in regard to having Mr. Netanyahu and the Saudis dragging him into something that could potentially have global implications. Press TV: Let’s quickly bring in the issue of Bahrain as well. How seriously do you think the divide between Saudi Arabia and the US do you think Bahrain is? We know that Saudi Arabia has been directly supporting the al-Khalifa regime, it’s been deploying troops and armored vehicles. But we haven’t seen any kind of action by the US to support the opposition there, we’ve not seen any kind of condemnation, so do you think they are very different on their approaches on Bahrain? Dankof: Of course, the United States naval Fifth Fleet is based on Bahrain - this should not escape anyone’s attention. It also underscores the fundamental weakness in American foreign policy in that we state that we are in favor of “one person one vote” democracy throughout the world. We seem to favor that in certain parts of the world when it’s in our interests, but when it comes to supporting a majority group of people when that’s not in our interest, we’re quite happy to support a repressive minority regime. And clearly that’s what we’re doing in Bahrain - where if you had one person one vote, that would be the end of the current government in Bahrain. So, this is where it is and when we start getting into this whole business of international power politics and petro-dollars and Zionist interests in the Middle East, this is clearly the bottom line of what drives American foreign policy and in this situation in Bahrain we’re just hoping that the rest of the world doesn’t notice our own hypocrisy in this matter. SC/NN Poster Comment: Esfandyar Pushti Kuhi Oct 25, 2013 12:1 AM Excellent T.V journalisim ,Beats NBC, CBS,BBC,CNN ,GOP .Fox news etc.. and the rest.Die CNN,DIe ,Persian Jounalisim now has reached 100[[]%] maturity..And will be competing with all of the rest,Jazirah and Arbia what ever.. Ashraf ....."This is one time where I think Barak Obama has correctly exercised caution in regard to having Mr. Netanyahu and the Saudis dragging him into something that could potentially have global implications. ".......Mark Dankof..........I agree with Mark 100[[]%]....... Lets give credit, where Credit is due........Since Kerry took over, he has been working incredibly hard to CORRECT many.......many dangerous and fatal MISTAKES in JUDGMENT committed by Hillary Clinton .........That could have turned the entire region in flame & start ww3........ As Israelis & Saudis both have been united in war against Syria.........Both putting pressure.........Using terrorism........In order to over through a popular Assad's government.........Thankfully John Kerry in spite of appearances of support for Israel.........Been instrumental in acting WISLY in this regard, preventing their extremely dangerous plan in Syria to come to fruition, causing much more devastation than it already has! ....... Westy The number one US/Israeli goal is to get rid of Assad so that they can get rid of Russia's military base and then Israel can steal Syria's land. Assad and Syria's military is winning and it is very unlikely that Assad will be overthrown, this is a major blow to the US strategy in the region. The Americans thought that Iran was the only country stopping their strategy being put into place. Elvin I think these kind of obviously deceptive politics cannot be sustained much longer, now that even in the mainstream media, e.g. terms like 'false flag' are stated with certain affairs. The only thing the powers that be can do now is immediately start to bluntly suppress its people (in 1st world countries as well), otherwise their game could be over quite soon. Arash Saudi Arabia and Israel is a Tumor that holds down the middle east and keeps it divided. I say cut out these two cancers you will see a piece even in the world. Rating4 Ashrafin reply to Arash ......2 Arash......Right on.......The entire focus for peace to prevail in the region and the world....... should be to remove these TUMORE,, with the least damaging affect .........Iran and the United States have both COMMEN enemy( contrary to the common mis understanding thanks to Zionist media).........ISRAEL & The Saudis........Iran & The US and Russia need to get together in order to save Human family from these dangerous killer TUMORE at once!.....May peace prevail through the wisdom! Robert Big words , but the Saudi ruling regime fully knowsthey can only stay in power with the mercy and helpof their US and (more and more ) zionist masters Rating24 Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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