'US regional allies against any ceasefire in Syria'

Press TV has interviewed Jim W Dean, the managing editor of Veterans Today from Atlanta, and Richard Millett, a journalist and political commentator from London, to get their takes on why the US and Russia have failed to reach a deal to stop the crisis in Syria.

The chronology of ceasefires in Syria shows that regional foes such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, who are all US allies, use all tactics to lead any truce in the war-torn Arab country into a complete failure, Dean told Press TV’s program 'The Debate' on Sunday night.

Washington's regional allies have used terrorist attacks and bombings to break ceasefires in Syria, while blaming them on others to keep the chaos going, he said, noting that "it does not matter how good ceasefires are announced and what major powers agree [to] them, there are players who want to stop any truce in Syria."

He further stated that the US and NATO have no intention of confronting their allies "who are busy breaking ceasefires in Syria. So, that’s really something to be pessimistic about.”

American and Russian officials have so far failed to come to terms on a way to end the clashes between US-backed militants and the Syrian government. On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, US President Barack Obama expressed skepticism that an unlikely alliance between rivals would yield the breakthrough needed to end the 5-year-old war in Syria.

Dean also stated that the current US administration is trying to strike a deal on the establishment of a ceasefire in Syria before November's presidential election.

According to Dean, Russia wants the so-called moderate militants to be differentiated from the terrorists in Syria so as to effectively fight them, "but the US has been supporting Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have been funding and supplying weapons to terrorist groups like al-Nusra Front."

Also speaking on Press TV's program 'The Debate', Richard Millett ruled out the supplying of equipment to what he called the Syrian opposition and instead put the blame on the Syrian government and its allies for the situation there. "If President Bashar al-Assad does not quit power, the conflict will continue in Syria."

He added, “Syria really doesn’t exist anymore,” because “it is ruled by [President] Assad on one part, by ISIS [Daesh] on another part, by the Kurds on another part and now Turkey is into the fray as well.”

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The United Nations has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.