Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that most Americans are unaware that Washington aims to overthrow democratically elected Syrian government.

In his recent op-ed article for Politico Magazine, US attorney and nephew of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that the US decided to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power after he refused to back a Qatari gas pipeline project

The CIA went ahead with this plan after the multi-billion dollar pipeline project first surfaced in 2000, years before the Arab Spring uprising in Syria took place.

The project was aimed to build a gas link from Qatar through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey to Europe.

Kennedy writes that if completed, the pipeline would have had major geopolitical implications. For example, it would have given “the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America's closest ally in the Arab world.”

The gas link would have also provided Ankara with ‘rich transit fees’, the author added. This all clearly indicates that the Syrian conflict is not a civil war for greater rights or representation, but a violent foreign-sponsored insurgency aimed at bringing a business project to life.

Radio Sputnik spoke with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to learn more about his research.

“If we study the history of America’s relation with Mideast and looking at the US’ violent intervention in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt over time and the extraordinary and astonishing thing is the solid record of the cataclysmic failure every time we venture there in violent fashion. Most Americans are completely unaware of us attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government in Syria, contrary to our own state department policy and contrary to American values.”

Kennedy Jr. went on to say that this has resulted in severe blowbacks for the US. He spoke about the US and Syria’s relations and how they both fought beside each other in World War II against the French who controlled Syria at the time.

“After the war, the Syrian people tried to introduce a US fashioned democracy in Syria. The elected president’s big mistake was that he was reticent about building an Arabian pipeline as the US energy project and because of that CIA overthrew him. Six years later they again tried to overthrow him and this time their attempt failed and it was highly publicized and it caused riots.”

He spoke about how the CIA agents tried to murder the Syrian chief of staff by bribing the Syrian military but that plan backfired and the Syrian government expelled all of the US diplomats from Syria.

Kennedy Jr. also talked about CIA engineered involvement in Iraq which essentially brought Saddam Hussein to power. He also mentioned how Muammar Gadhafi managed to keep Libya stable.

Kennedy also spoke about the upcoming US election and who he thinks should be president.