The fundamental issue is to address the nature of the conflict.

‘Is this a civil war between opposing factions within Syrian society or is it in fact a war of aggression?’

I think at the moment what is striking is the fact that there is a merger of the insurgency in Iraq and Syria: it’s the same Al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the Levant, which are waging war against both countries. And the question is who is behind them?

We know that there are intelligence operations, we know that Saudi Arabia is supporting the rebels and we also know that the United States is now supporting the New Islamic front which was created back in November, which is considered to be some kind of moderate grouping of Islamic organizations. In effect there’s ample evidence to the efect that the Western military Alliance is supporting various Islamic rebel forces.

Sergey Lavrov made the statement back in November that the Geneva-2 peace talks should focus on counterterrorism. That raises an issue –because they’ll be sitting at the table together—and then the question is: ‘Who is behind the terrorists?’

We must understand that the western military alliance also has blood on their hands. It’s not simply an issue of identifying the terrorists, we have to identify the people who are behind them.

RT interview below