The United Kingdom and the United States de facto confirmed their support of terrorists in Syria that’s according to Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva. It comes after the UN Human Rights Council vetoed Moscow’s amendments of a resolution on Eastern Ghouta, backing the UK-proposed draft. 29 members of the council voted in favour, four — against and 14 abstained.
They condemned the violence, a massive violation of human rights, airstrikes against civilians and the alleged use of chemical weapons on Eastern Ghouta. However, the proposed by Russia suggestion to condemn acts of terror in Syria and refuse to provide any support for terrorists there was declined.
Sputnik: How much do you think western news coverage influences the independent council members?
John Steppling: What degree of Cinicism is involved with these people, it undoubtable has an impact, I mean the core of propaganda is to repeat the same lie over and over again and eventually it starts to be internalised whether people realise it or not. Russia has been so demonised so depicted as an aggressor in all these situations globally. The other day a US general said that Iran, China and Russia were an obstacle to US dominance globally, that is openly stating that global hegemony is the intended goal for the United States and they’re nowhere near that, they are increasingly desperate and fragile state. There’s a panic about reserve currency and the Iran, China, Russia cooperation, the Shanghai Council, all of the these things suggest the US is in a desperate situation and economically they are, everything is pinned into defence and they’ve just increased their defence spending massively once again. So they need to continue to whip up enemies and conflicts and the primary target of the propaganda is Russia although China and Iran are close behind.
Sputnik: Do you feel Russia has a case to be aggrieved based on the decision by the Human Rights Council?
John Steppling: The UK is marching hand in hand with the US here and France for that matter. So Russia has right to be aggrieved, but I can’t believe they are at all surprised at this however, the US has been waging this war against the Assad government for what seven years now, they have been defeated routinely and frustrated in their attempts despite all their proxy forces, Kurdish militias, their various factions of jihadist fighters. This keeps escalating, Trump just lifted restrictions, the very slight modest restrictions, slight military restrictions that Obama installed, and one can only assume they are going to intensify the fighting, although it’s hard to predict what the Trump administration intends. I mean the broader perspective here though is you also see in the US a massive anti-Russian propaganda campaign going on. There are several branches of that and several reasons for it happening right now. There is now from the New York Times and the Washington Post all the leading newspapers almost an open call for war Russia, its shocking and a little disturbing to see this and yet it keeps escalating. Russia is aggrieved yes, but they can’t be surprised, this has been going on and growing. Putin’s recent speech speaks to Russia’s somewhat defensive posture now. What are they supposed to do, what are they supposed to think. The UN is predictable going to do what the United States tells them, we’ve seen this all the way back to the fall of Yugoslavia. They’re right to be aggrieved but it’s not the first time this has happened.
Sputnik: How much is the coverage by Western media of Eastern Ghouta to that of its coverage of Aleppo?
John Steppling: It seems absolutely identical, I mean if you look at when the US destroyed the former Yugoslavia; you see so many of the same mechanisms, the same props being employed. It is a tried and true playbook that they use and it worked before and it will work again. This is almost identical to Aleppo, the coverage you could create a chart to graph the similarities because they are acute. It [‘s the same story], things as simple as always referring to the Assad government as the Assad regime, you never hear of the Netanyahu regime. The Israeli role in all of this is not insignificant either, they have escalated there direct involvement in Syria recently. The access here is the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel and they are in sync in terms of propaganda for certain.