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Press TV has conducted an interview with Nabil Mikhail, professor at George Washington University from Washington, about the issue of Russia’s evidential findings that prove the use of chemical weapons inside Syria by Western-backed insurgents. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

- How do you see this issue of these chemical weapons used by these insurgents? The United Nations in the past had said that it [sic] has seen evidence that insurgents had used these weapons. Now Russia is also saying the same thing.

Does that change or do you think it will change the stance of the West when it comes to these insurgents?

- First of all, I wish happy Ramadan to all Muslims and non-Muslims from all over the world.

As far as the Russian statements today about the use of chemical weapons being basically tied to activities and military efforts by the opposition I feel they are very intriguing and I basically feel that Russia is preparing for a second phase, a second period in the conflict over Syria.

As you said in your question, for sure it will lead to some thinking and rethinking among many policy makers in the West and in the US on how to fund the opposition and I think today there was an announcement in a Congressional magazine that some funding has been cut to opposition figures in Syria.

So Russia actually is using that story to inaugurate another phase in the Syria conflict whereby diplomatic effort and national security concerns will be combined to render different realities or different results.

How? I think by trying to make the Obama administration more responsible. You said using chemical weapons is a red line, but he did not use any force.

We have now evidence that the party that you support at least morally is using it. What are you going to do? So there is a great deal of shrewdness in the Russian statement and I think it’s a big test for the Obama administration.

- How do you think the Obama administration will do in this test, will it come out on top, will it make the right decision?

- This is also a good question. I hope Obama will not be confused about the use of chemical weapons in Syria the way he is confused about Egypt and other developments. He has to make a quick decision.

I advise him to let the Pentagon or Department of Defense make a statement about it. He may not like that statement because the Pentagon could be more cautious getting in involved in Syria militarily.

So, inevitably I believe there will be dissension inside the Obama administration’s national security team in the light of the recent Russian evidence about chemical weapons used and also because the situation faded away little bit after the conflict in Egypt.

So I think Obama may be making a decision, but it won’t be a decision similar to the ones earlier i.e. ‘we support the opposition’. He has basically to say we support some factions, the opposition should be careful and not use weapons of mass destruction like chemical weapons.

So, how he will define the Syrian opposition role will basically be a good response to the Russian accusation and also an indication of how he himself and his national security advisors will handle the Syrian conflict as it picks up momentum soon and as it becomes a major, major challenge to the geo-politics of the Middle East.