Situation in Syria: Interview with Christoph Hörstel

By Jerry Dandridge

– November 12, 2012 – Posted in: Sideviews

Interview with German Middle East expert Christoph Hörstel about the developments in Syria.

There is a new interview with the German expert of affairs in the Middle East and book author Christoph Hörstel about the situation and developments in Syria. Christoph Hörstel was formerly a well-known correspondent, who was working for the German state television.

Mr. Hörstel has cancelled his job at the German state television because of the increasing biased reporting and other differences between his opinions and the doctrine of the German state television channels.

Since a long time, Christoph Hörstel cares about the events and developments in Syria and he was also able to make some good contacts with people in Syria and people from the Syrian government. It is now, after the recent months, no real surprise that Christoph Hörstel is accused with several strange defamations.

The German Middle East expert Christoph Hörstel (Christoph Hoerstel) was once sought as an expert on Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern topics and as a journalist, but by the usual campaigns to discredit specific people, Mr. Hörstel and his former image has already suffered a lot.

“In the event of the ouster of the current Syrian government, no one can guarantee the lives of three million Christians and also for the lives of about three million Alawis (Alawites).”

Situation in Syria: Interview with Christoph Hörstel

Question: The skirmishes and fights in various Syrian cities proceed unabated without that any visible prospect of an end to the violence is apparent. How would you describe the current situation in this Arab country?
Christoph Hörstel: We have to sadly say that the situation of the people is deteriorating more and more every day.

We have to also say, that the Syrian opposition and their supporting foreign fighters right up to the individual terrorists and Al-Qaeda groups are not in a position – that is even openly admitted by the U.S. side (for example, today in the “New York Times” – to keep the approval ratings that they once had.

That means that one has actually to say, that the use of violence in Syria is increasingly pointless and it costs more and more blood, which unsettles the people. By now there are hundreds of thousands refugees – especially also internally.

In a lecture that I gave yesterday (November 7) just in front of a German-American Society, the oldest, I have said that in the event of dismissal of the current government, nobody is any longer in a position to guarantee for the lives of three million Christians and also for the lives of about three million Alawis (Alawites).

Of course these are very extreme, unpleasant prospects that are only transported by developments on the ground.

Question: Would the war have lasted for so long without the foreign support? So which interests have the Western countries, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in the continuation of the struggle?
Christoph Hörstel: Of course, we are at a turning point. I do say it again, those armed clashes there would have never happened without the foreign interference. That’s not a question in my view and from my information base. Also anybody, who has taken note of this information, is in no position to deny it.

We have to say it very clearly, that it lasts so long is due to the massive attack situation from the outside, and involved are mainly, in first place Turkey, but also in particular Saudi Arabia and Qatar; Qatar, especially, is deeper involved than Saudi Arabia.

This kind of an open support with weapons, with money, with teams and also the logistical support from Libya with Fighters that have been used there to overthrow the regime of Gaddafi is like a traveling circus of collapse and destruction of a state. That’s something grotesque. It is done by abroad and the question is, why is it even continued?

This can also be said in terms of your country, and I am sorry about this, because unfortunately, the view from the most military-strategic sandpit exercises and the political-strategic sandpit exercises in the United States and in NATO is the opinion that Syria has to be pushed to the edge, to the edge of the abyss, in order to increase the pressure on your country, Iran.

So, to destroy it (Syria) as much as possible from the inside out with outside help, so that Iran is tractable from an American perspective.

The problem with this is that all of this takes place without that Syria, or Iran, or Russia, do not use it in regard that all the Western populations are more than war weary, that the people in the West are sick of these things, of such large-scale wholesale operations and the artificial murdering of people without a real revolution in the background, and would like nothing better than to stand up against their governments.

But they lack, however, a lot of background information and there is a lack of support for it. It becomes less and less clear why Damascus, Tehran and Moscow does not do more to support the resistant population here, and I am simply talking about majorities here, to support them in their efforts against war. That would be easy and cheap, much cheaper than any of their military efforts.
The interview was conducted by Seyyed-Hedayatollah Shahrokny.
Source: german.irib.ir

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