SACHS: Rebel Offensive in Syria 'at the Core' a Netanyahu Operation

Professor says it remains Israeli leader's goal to drag the U.S. into war for Israel

Jeffery Sachs, the Columbia economist, said in an interview with Piers Morgan Tuesday that the U.S., Turkey, and Israel are likely behind the rebel offensive in Syria that hopes to result in Syria’s Bashar al-Assad’s demise.

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He said it was “interesting” that the U.S. referred to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [HTS], the main Turkish-backed group invading Syria’s Aleppo, a “terrorist group” despite Washington’s obvious role in the attack.

He noted that Jake Sullivan, U.S. President Joe Biden’s warhawk national security adviser, appeared on CNN to admit that HTS is a terror organization, but said: “At the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure. So it’s a complicated situation.”

Sachs said the attack in Syria is clearly a U.S.-Turkish-Israeli operation that is part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-term gameplan that involves overthrowing governments in neighboring countries that support Palestinians.

He said Turkey also has its own interests involved, especially when it comes to the Kurds in northern Syria, but for Israel, this is “standard” operations.

“Overthrow governments in the neighborhood, expand the war, draw the United States in…and the U.S. is always available at Israel’s behest to play games and expand wars. And that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

He said, at the core, the rebel attack is a Netanyahu operation.

Sachs said he does not believe that Assad is in any danger of overthrow at the moment.

The invasion is still in its infancy and it appears that there are several groups that have aligned themselves with HTS. A reporter from the AFP located in Idlib said the “jihadists and their Turkey-backed allies took orders from a joint operations command.”

It is believed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan aims to take advantage of Assad’s backers who are entangled in their own wars.

Abbas Arghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, spoke with Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, and said it is important that Bashar al-Assad’s allies remain vigilant and “thwart this dangerous plot” by the “Zionist regime and the United States to destabilize the West Asian region.”

Al Arabiya noted that Turkey is fully entrenched in northern Syria and provides intelligence and military support for the Al Qaeda-aligned HTS.

Russian and Syrian fighter jets attacked Idlib on Sunday and killed at least 25, according to Reuters. Assad said he will crush the insurgency. The report said at least 56 people—including 20 children—have been killed in these strikes since last week.

Robert Ford, the former Obama ambassador to Syria who has called on Washington to pull American troops from the Kurdish north, told The Wall Street Journal that he believes the militants have been preparing the attack for a while, but have been held back by the Turkish government—until Israel reached a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

“But now, once the Lebanon ceasefire is done, the attack on Aleppo doesn’t look anymore like Turkey fighting an enemy of Israel,” he said.

The Defense Department announced today that its forces “destroyed several weapon systems that posed a threat to U.S. and coalition forces in Syria.”

TRENDPOST: George Galloway, the British analyst, criticized the governments that there could be nothing clear vis-a-vis who’s behind whom.

“Ask yourself that simple question. If Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Qatar, and Turkey are on one side of a battle, why would you want to be on that side? None of these people have given a dollar, a dime, a bullet, or an ounce of support to the people of Gaza. Not an ounce of support…and you know that. You know that. You know that these ISIS and Al-Qaeda killers haven’t as much as broken an Israeli window. Never mind take up arms in defense of the Palestinian people.”