UK MP's call for downing Russian jets in Syria ‘disgraceful’: Analyst
Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:14PM
Senior Tory MP Andrew Mitchell’s call for shooting down Russian jets over Syria is “disgraceful” and would put the world on the path towards another deadly war, says Dr. Rodney Shakespeare, a British academic and political analyst.
Mitchell, the UK’s former international development secretary, told BBC this week that if shooting down Russian jets ends the conflict in Syria, then that is what Britain and its allies should focus on.
He said the UK and its NATO allies should enforce a no-fly zone over Syria and allow British fighter jets attack Russian warplanes that breach it.
“What is happening in the Middle East is that the UK and America are supporting front of evil which is Saudi Arabia, which is behind Daesh or ISIL,” Shakespeare told Press TV on Thursday.
It is this unconditional support for Saudi Arabia that has prompted the British government to side with the Daesh Takfiri group instead of waging an all-out war against it, the analyst argued.
If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is removed from power and Daesh takes over, he argued, then the Israeli desire of smashing up “independent states” in the region would move another step forward.
So, he noted, Mitchell’s call to shoot down Russian jets was because “Russia, the Syrian government and Iran” are the “only forces in this world which are unequivocally opposed to Daesh and are prepared to do something about it.”
Shakespeare said downing Russian jets would put the world “on the path to World War,” an agenda that is being actively followed by “American Zionists.”
Mitchell had said that Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet over Syria last year served as a good example that firing a warning shot at the Russians would not provoke a war.
“There is a risk and it's disgraceful that Andrew Mitchell MP should take that risk because the bottom line here is that in practice, he is supporting Daesh in Syria and elsewhere,” Shakespeare concluded.
Russia has been engaged in an aerial campaign against terrorist groups in Syria upon a request by Damascus, dealing heavy blows to the Takfiri militants in places like the Aleppo province.
The UK, on the other hand, is part of a US-led coalition that has been carrying out airstrikes against alleged Daesh positions in Syria and Iraq since 2014, without a UN mandate or permission from Damascus.
