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Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, an author and political analyst, in Madison, about head of the foreign-backed Syrian opposition Ahmad al-Jarba preparing to meet in the US to secure the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons for the militants inside Syria.

Press TV: Would changing the “balance of power on the ground” in favor of the insurgents be a good thing for peace in Syria?

Barrett: Of course not and I think even the lunatics in Washington DC may realize that at this point.

Giving anti-aircraft weapons to the Syrian opposition, to groups like ISIS, the Islamic State of the Levante and Iraq, would be completely insane. This group was expelled from al-Qaeda for being too extreme.

So, the idea that the American government would give anti-aircraft weapons to these kinds of groups is pretty bizarre. But, of course, you can’t ever rule anything out these days.

The Americans and NATO seem hell-bent on regime change in so many countries. They overthrew the government of Iraq; split Sudan in half; and now they’ve attacked Ukraine; they installed a puppet government in a brutal coup d’état backed by neo-Nazis and Zionist billionaires. So you just never know what they might do.

I know there are those who want to keep Syria in chaos thinking that strategically they’re better off if Syria becomes a failed state, but I don’t think that that would really be in the interests of Washington.

And from the signals that I’ve been hearing from Washington, I would have expected that they would be cutting their losses and cutting a deal with the current government of Syria and giving up on these crazy rebels who can’t work together, who can’t get anything done, who’ve been butchering civilians and committing atrocities in record numbers.

So, I don’t think that Mr. Jarba’s visit to Washington is going to accomplish much or at least I certainly hope it won’t.

Press TV: Speaking about accomplishing much for the insurgents, the United States has now that it accepts these insurgents as “foreign mission status” in the country... Certainly that is an escalation at least in its status. And what does that mean then going forward of US policy vis-à-vis these insurgents who as you said are killing innocent people on the ground?

Barrett: Well, I’m not sure what giving them this status will accomplish. I’m afraid that at the end of the day the military situation is what’s going to determine the future of Syria and it appears that the Syrian government is prevailing and that these armed insurgent gangs are not only being propped up by the world’s worst actors... of these foreign governments and losing every support if they ever had any at all in Syria – I’m not sure they ever did – but they are just also completely incompetent militarily.

So, I think that most of the realists around the world see that this particular regime change operation in Syria has failed.

And so the thugs from NATO and the Zionists and these other bad actors who make their livings by stealing money from the rest of us so that they can go around the world trying to overthrow governments, they’re going to have to go find somewhere else to go to make their mischief.

Press TV: What do you see as the ramifications of the situation in Syria? Certainly, it does affect the Middle East and the entire world.

Barrett: Well, that’s right. I think that the biggest push for regime change in Syria was coming from extreme Zionists and neo-Conservative Zionists here in the US, who wanted to take out Syria as a way to go after Iran.

And I think that the realists who are willing to engage in the current situation in the Middle East, which includes Iran continuing on its path to development and making peace with the world through these nuclear talks, I think those people have the upper hand right now.

So I do think that the Middle East may stabilize at least for some time and that those who are willing to accept the current government in Syria and give up on propping up these foreign-backed mercenaries will probably be playing other games and hopefully the games they’ll be playing won’t be as destructive as this horrific terrorist war on Syria that they’ve ginned up.