In an interview with Mehr News Agency, Diana Johnstone shared her views on the recent terrorist events in Paris, the refugee crisis in Europe and the condition in Middle East. Johnstone, while condemning the EU foreign policies and calling for the European leaders independence from US, urged them to “work with Russia to try to restore international law and respect for national sovereignty.”
First of all I want to know your idea on the terrorist attacks in Paris. I think this is the first time Europe faces such violent terrorist attacks in such a scale. How do you analyze the event?
There have been similar attacks in Madrid and London. But these have had wider impact. The fact of killers machine-gunning down people sitting in sidewalk cafés in Paris strongly carries the message that nobody is safe. That is the purpose, I suppose. The government tries to distract from its inability to prevent such acts with patriotic speeches, flags, police and soldiers all over the city. The short-term reaction is predictably ritualistic and insignificant. The long-term effects are uncertain.
In your opinion what are the causes of the Paris terrorist attacks? Or better say, how do you see the role of Western states in emergence of terrorism?
These attacks were inspired by a triumphalist strain of Wahhabi ideology whose growth is primarily the result of years of deceptive and aggressive US policy in the Middle East, in cahoots with Israel and Saudi Arabia. This aggression has been aimed at systematically destroying all modernizing Arab forces in the region. For Israel, this meant weakening support for the Palestinians as well as the prospects of territorial expansion, from the Golan Heights onward. For Saudi Arabia, it meant spreading its ideological domination. For the United States, it meant maintaining control of dollar trading in oil. In each case, dishonest pretexts were used for aggression: responsibility for 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, “dictators”. Now Turkey is involved, evidently hoping to grab pieces of northern Syria.
President Jacques Chirac was the last French president to recognize that these aggressive policies were contrary to French interests when he refused to take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The eloquent speech of Dominique de Villepin expressed what French policy should be. Instead, subsequent French Presidents, frightened by US retaliation, became obedient puppets of Washington.
United States aggression began in 1979 with US support of Osama bin Laden and other Mujahideen to entrap Soviet forces in Afghanistan and thereby weaken the Soviet Union. Then came the destruction of Iraq, the destruction of Libya and now the effort to destroy Syria. With Israel and Saudi Arabia, the United States has incited religious war between Sunnis and Shias. In its effort to transform the Middle East, the US has made use of the very Islamist forces – today labeled DAESH (aka ISIL) – that are most hostile to the West, enabling them to thrive. At the same time, the spectacle of constant Western massacres of Muslims has ironically attracted alienated youth precisely to the cause of those same Islamist forces that have benefited from Western support. The terrorist attacks in Paris are making it clear to more and more people in France that their government’s policy of blindly following the United States has been suicidal. More and more voices are calling for a drastic reversal of foreign policy and a change in alliances. But current government leaders lack the courage to admit their mistakes.
What’s your idea on the refugee crisis? How do you define it regarding that the asylum seekers are in fact escaping the same fear and threat the EU countries are facing now.
Refugees have been fleeing to neighboring countries in the Middle East for many years. The timing of the current huge influx of refugees into Europe is due to two factors. One is the destruction of the Libyan State. The other is Turkey’s move to incite refugees in Turkey to head to Europe. Erdogan is using this mass of refugees to try to blackmail Germany. In any case, the fear and threats suffered by people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan for many years are much worse than those faced so far by EU countries.
What do you think on relating the attacks to the refugees? And the measures taken after the attacks regarding the refugees?
The attacks can only increase the opposition of European citizens to the influx of refugees. It is striking that many continental European political leaders, media and business leaders have been speaking out in favor of welcoming refugees, while most ordinary citizens are worried, not only because ISIL agents are certain to be concealed in the mass of refugees, but also because Europe is suffering from serious unemployment. Public hostility to mass immigration was growing even before the attacks. The effort to reassert border controls was inevitable.
Do you believe there is any resolution to all these tragic events? To the thousands displaced people, the conflicts in ME and the terrorism?
The situation has become so chaotic that it is hard to see any solution. Such a large number of refugees are not welcomed in Europe and need to be able to return to their homes, and for that there must be peace. Moreover, the war in Syria is no longer a regional catastrophe, but has become part of the United States war against Russia. We are slipping into World War III. This is an insanely dangerous path for Europeans to follow. What European countries need are leaders with the courage to assert independence from US control and work with Russia to try to restore international law and respect for national sovereignty. Even that would not be enough to solve the problems that have been created, but it would be a step in the direction of survival. So far, current political leaders are too submissive to Washington to think clearly and make the necessary changes.
Diana Johnstone is political commentator and author of “Hillary Clinton: Queen of Chaos”, published in the United States and in France.
Interview by: Parnaz Talebi