The West a 'TV witness' to Syrian strife
The West is nothing more than a television witness to the “absurdly awful” Syrian civil war, the co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has warned.
Bernard Kouchner, a former French foreign minister, also insists Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is on his way to victory despite political leaders promising they would do something to force him out.
Asked if he still wants the United States and France to intervene in Syria if necessary, Mr Kouchner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s very difficult to answer yes.
“At the beginning it was certainly possible to do something to show we were ready to defend the Syrian population against these awful bombings and now I don’t know because it’s more and more difficult.
“The real winner in the last G8 meeting in the UK was Mr Putin. Facing Mr Putin there is no real will, there is no determination at all.”
He said any military action needed to be approved by the United Nations - unlike the UK and USA’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Mr Kouchner said: “Unfortunately Mr Putin and the Chinese are not in agreement with us. This is so difficult – at the beginning the political leaders promised us they would do something and Mr Bashar will leave in one month or two months or six months or one year.
“And now we are not saying so because Mr Bashar is on the way to win and with the help of the Hezbollah and the Iranian soldiers.”
Questioned if the situation will get worse considering nearly 100,000 people are thought to have been killed, Mr Kouchner said: “I think so because we are just a TV witness of something absurdly awful.”
Mr Kouchner said he did not think it was possible to send in ground troops.
He added: “The famous American drones, where are they?
“We are regressing – this is worse than before. We were all fighting for the right to interfere and protect the civilian population and it was done several times in the Balkans and no more now because of the economical crisis? Because of combat fatigue? I don’t know.”
