0Looks like the war of words in Syria is in full swing. The Syrian opposition blames Wednesday’s alleged chemical attack on the Assad regime which in turn says the accusations have been fabricated by the opposition to cover up the losses by the rebels. Who do you think in your opinion is interested more in this informational war?

0First of all, a very serious allegation has been made against the Syrian government by the Islamist militants in Syria, namely, Free Syrian Army. The international community needs to approach this allegation in the same way that the court of law would – in an objective intelligent and sensible fashion. So, it does need to be investigated. However, going by the way western politicians are speaking and westerns journalists from the mainstream media are speaking, they’ve already decided within 24 hours that Syrian government is guilty of this allegation against it. How on earth can a politician or a journalist determine that within 24 hours? They are saying that simply because the Free Syrian Army is the proxy of the west. The west is using the Free Syrian Army to try and bring down the Syrian government. So, in my opinion I would pay very little credence to what western politicians and western journalists from the mainstream media are saying that.

0How would you comment on some media reports, say, Al Jazeera, Routers, publishing the footage of victims of Wednesday’s incident before the attack took place? Do you think this indicates the opposition’s drive to make people believe that it was Assad’s regime?

0It would appear going by all accounts and testimonies that something has happened, however, we don’t know what has happened. This needs to be investigated. Western politicians and western journalists are not police detectives. They are not on the ground. So, how on earth can they determine what has happened? What we do know is that in the last few days Syrian army commends large-scale operations in various suburbs of Damascus to route out militants who have been shelling parts of Damascus and killing Syrian civilians, men, women and children on a daily basis. You don’t hear about that in the western mainstream media.

0So, it would seem that a big battle is at the moment in the suburbs of Damascus but we don’t know what actually happened to these people who, it would appear, are dead in the footage, and the question that needs to be asked is this – why would Syrian government at a time when allowed a UN inspection team to come into the country at a time when Syrian army is after the defeats and the militants regain the territory loss over the last year, why would it do something like this?

0It is not in its interests, however it certainly is in the interests of the militants in Syria because they are on the back foots and they are desperate for western military intervention and it wouldn’t be the first time in history that we have seen a side shell their own people and try blaming it on the opposing force. We saw that in Bosnia war, there were 2 famous market massacres where after shelling the people in the market the Bosnian-Muslim side blamed it on the Bosnian Serbs and the west used it as a pretext for intervention but we now know that it was actually the Bosnian Muslim forces that shelled their own people to blame it on the Bosnian Serbs. So, a precedent was set for the Bosnian war.

0The footage that we saw yesterday was absolutely awful. But do you really believe that that footage was real?

0It would appear that it is genuine but how can I sitting in London determine if it is genuine or not? How can a British politician sitting in London determine if it is genuine or not? How can anyone around the world determine it unless you are in the area if it is genuine or not? It appears horrific footage but we don’t know if it is genuine and also we don’t know how these people died. None of us are detectives, that is why it needs to be approached as a court of law would approach it – in an objective, intelligent fashion and we must put to the side what we are hearing from various western governments and western mainstream media outlets because they are not objective people or institutions whatsoever.

0Are both sides interested in ending this war?

0I think the conflict in Syria is a very complex conflict. It is not black and white. It is not as evil as it has been forward in the west. No sides are innocent in warfare whichever country is involved in a war. I believe a political solution is the only solution to the conflict in Syria. However, certain western governments do not see it that way. They believe the way to end this conflict is to equip the Free Syrian Army who is ideologically speaking the same people who carried out the 9/11 bombings, bombing in Madrid, Bali and London, the western politicians believe that by supplying them with arms this is going to bring the Syrian government to the peace table who as it goes have already said they want to go forward with the negotiations but they believe this is the way forward. However, these politicians who are making these decisions in Washington for example are not thinking of the ordinary Syrian population. Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_22/Chemical-weapons-in-Syria-Assads-opposition-is-desperate-for-Western-intervention-expert-9923/