Jamal Wakeem: US Trying to Establish Zone under Its Influence in Southern Syria

The comments by the political commentator, who is also a professor at Lebanese University in Beirut, came after Russia's Defense Ministry slammed the reported American deployment of rocket launchers from Jordan to its base in At Tanf.

RT asked Dr. Jamal Wakeem for his opinion on who the Pentagon is trying to surprise with this deployment, ISIL or the Syrian Army.

Jamal Wakeem: "I don’t believe that the Americans are concerned about fighting ISIL. I believe their primary objective is still to topple the Syrian government. We need to admit first that the Americans and their allies were the ones to create the crisis in Syria, as part of their grand strategy to block Eurasia from having access to the east Mediterranean… I believe the US is trying … to establish a zone under its influence in southern Syria, now that the Kurds in northern Syria are pushing southward in order to widen the region that is controlled by them."

"At the same time, the Americans are trying to block any possibility of a geographical link between Baghdad and Damascus, as a means for them to marginalize Iran and the Lebanese resistance from the Syrian arena in preparation for the future strike against the Syrian Army and also against its allies. I believe that this is the main objective of the US. Now that the Syrian Army was able to reach the Iraqi border after it was able to bypass At Tanf, that was targeted on several occasions by the US, the Americans see that their strategy is being under threat. That is why they deployed these missiles that would target mainly the Syrian Army, and I believe we will see a further escalation of the situation. The Americans know very well that the stability of the regime relies mainly on the stability of the capital, Damascus… ."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the deployment may be intended to cut off Syrian government troops from allies in Iraq, since there are no ISIL militants in the region to target with the weapons.

Russia's Defense Ministry also said that experience shows these weapons are more likely to be used against Syrian government forces fighting ISIL, rather than against the terrorists themselves.