US maritime exercise part of military escalation in Mideast: Analyst
Press TV has interviewed Gearóid Ó Colmáin, a political analyst, about the United States Navy leading the largest maritime exercises in the Middle East with 30 countries participating in the event.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: First of all give us your thoughts on these military exercises. Why do you think they are being carried out?
Ó Colmáin: They are being carried out as part of military escalation by the United States in the region in general. We see US announces their redeployment of B-52 bombers for example to the Middle East also, so there is a major military escalation going on and I think the worry for the US is that they lost control of countries like Iraq. The Iraqis are far happier to cooperate with Russia and Iran in combating the Islamic State (Daesh) there and US media has admitted that over a third of Iraqi citizens believe the United States is behind them, backing Daesh Takfiri terrorists in their country and that the United States is trying to destabilize their country.
In this case the waterways of course are of extreme significance, strategic importance for the United States. Let’s not forget that one of the reasons why the United States is pursuing a proxy war against Yemen is to control the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait because this is a very, very important water, this is a very important access route for oil and it connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. So these are issues that the United States obviously has in mind here in this deployment.
Press TV: As we know the US Navy is leading the maneuvers, the commander of US Naval Forces Central Command has stated that these exercises have been designed to stop the terrorists from causing disruption to shipping in international waters. It is always comments like these that raise a lot of questions and are almost always doubted.
Ó Colmáin: Yes, the thing is that Daesh has been extremely useful to the United States in destabilizing Iraq and Syria ...
Now the fact that the Russians have [routed] them from key strategic points in Syria is a major problem for the United States but they are also used as an excuse for intervention. So I think that is what we are seeing here again, Daesh and al-Qaeda being used as an excuse for US militarization of the region.
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