is the Yemen Unit Director for the Next Century Foundation (London). Formerly a consultant on Yemen for the UNSC, her writings and commentaries have appeared in major outlets, including RT, Al Jazeera, CGTN, Elaph and the BBC.

is the Yemen Unit Director for the Next Century Foundation (London). Formerly a consultant on Yemen for the UNSC, her writings and commentaries have appeared in major outlets, including RT, Al Jazeera, CGTN, Elaph and the BBC.

While Western powers and their ME allies made clear they do not support Russia’s play in Syria since it upsets their own political ambitions, the latest round of propaganda takes the game of geopolitics to the Land of Oz.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading the neocon pack down the little yellow brick road, throwing outrage and words of condemnation on what she describes as the unbearable suffering of civilian populations in Syria.

Well, that’s nice… if only her words were not so completely hypocritical and - I would personally add - revolting political posturing.

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So now Chancellor Merkel is worried about Syrian civilians and the hardships of war! Was she asleep under a rock for the past five years, or did she somehow confuse her support for ‘moderate’ Wahhabists in Syria and Iraq as an act of mercy for those communities living under the boot of Terror’s black flag? Interesting how war refugees and the welfare of civilians are conveniently rationalized for very politically motivated attacks against Russia, Iran, and all those non-aligned powers, which have systematically denounced Western imperialism and covert interventionism.

“We’re not only shocked, but also outraged, at what’s happened in terms of human suffering in the past few days for tens of thousands of people through bomb attacks, including attacks above all from Russia,” Merkel told reporters in Ankara this Monday on the side-line of a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Merkel is clearly serving as an echo chamber to Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s anger, frustration, and - let’s just say it - fear in the face of Damascus’ advances against Islamic State forces. Remember that when it comes to Syria, regime change remains the Western powers’ foremost priority - by their own admission. In October 2014, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said there would never be peace in Syria “while Assad remains the focus of power.”

In January 2015, Kerry also flipped the narrative away from Western military interventionism and its de facto support of terror as a weapon of political mass-destabilization when he attempting to shift blame back onto Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, noting: “It is time for President Assad, the Assad regime, to put their people first and to think about the consequences of their actions, which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad.”

If this approach worked in early 2015, Russia’s arrival into the Syrian fray blew this play completely out of the water – exposing those realities Western powers have been so keen to keep under wrap for the sake of political decorum: mainly the terror profiteering and funding extra-curricular activities of its allies.

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It was US Senator Dick Black, who, in an interview with RT, blew the whistle on those shady alliances the US and other Western capitals have entertained by noting: “I believe that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the two greatest dangers to world peace… It is Saudi Arabia, through the Wahhabist doctrine, which is spreading terrorism across the globe. It’s not Iran, it’s not Syria or any other country.”

Senator Black is certainly not alone in his views.

"No one has a particularly credible long term strategy [for the Middle East] because it would involve facing some very uncomfortable truths - about the nature of the fight ahead of us, and imperfections of one of our most important allies in the Middle East,” said US Senator Chris Murphy in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York this January, while alluding to Riyadh’s alliances with terror group across the Greater Middle East.

As for Turkey and Saudi Arabia, losing ground to the rising pan-Arab resistance movement is frightening!

But let’s circle back to Merkel’s allegations and Davutoglu’s genocide cries. “We are going to work together to end the suffering of the Syrian people under these barbaric acts… No one can justify or tolerate Russian air strikes which amount to an ethnic massacre.”

Coming from the lips of a Turkish official, and in the light of Turkey’s abysmal human rights abuses against its Kurdish communities, this comment really takes the cake.

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Here is my question: What ethnic massacre? How deluded must Turkey be at this stage in the game to even suggest ethnic cleansing, when its military and security services are currently carrying out a brutal and murderous crackdown in its southern region against the Kurds?

If Turkey today is suddenly waving the refugee card to generate political sympathies, it is because it stands to lose a very lucrative black market: oil, weapons, human trafficking, now that Russia is actually bombing ISIS positions as opposed to Washington “selective” targeting.

Allow me to address Merkel’s concerns though, because there is indeed a refugee issue: Syrians are indeed running… anyone remotely in tune with world affairs will tell you that much. But Russia is certainly not to blame.

The fact is, the Syrians are running away from war. Anyone in their right mind would in fact run in the face of danger; this is not a political statement, simply a human observation. In fact, the Syrians have been running for the past five years – sometimes within their own borders, sometimes without. Today their escape is grabbing headlines because they have headed north towards Europe, and this has become a major issue for Western capitals - or perhaps an excellent excuse to further strip civil liberties and increase government oversight of the public sphere.

At the end of the day, this refugee plight was brought about by Western powers and their regional allies. Russia is merely working to clean up the mess and end Terror’s reign in Syria - on the express invitation of its president.

Another point which needs to be made. Russia is not targeting civilians; it is in fact targeting ISIS positions near Aleppo, offering air cover as Syrian troops crackdown on those terror pockets.

“No evidence has yet been provided on alleged casualties as a result of Russian airstrikes in Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, quickly adding: “In regard to Chancellor Merkel’s claims of alleged casualties in Russian airstrikes in Syria, one needs to take into account that regardless of the huge number of similar statements, someone has yet to produce a single shred of evidence that would make this information trustworthy.”

The real question we all should be asking is: Why in the world are we still allowing our officials to lie and manipulate their way to heights of power?