Speech by Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation at X Moscow Conference on International Security: "Increasing instability in the Middle East and North Africa as a consequence of destructive US pol…
Ladies and gentlemen!
The situation in the Middle East and North Africa remains tense, primarily as a result of the destructive activities of the United States of America and its allies seeking to maintain their dominance, gain control over the region's leadership, and gain access to natural resources. Any means - political pressure, blackmail, provocations, "colour revolutions" shaking the countries of the region and even open aggression - are used to achieve these goals. All this is done under the slogan of "democratisation", fighting against authoritarian regimes and, as it is declared, to build a so-called "rules-based order".
The result is the transformation of once prosperous and sovereign states into countries weakened by internal armed conflicts, with national economies and living standards plummeting and, in some cases, on the brink of humanitarian disaster. A number of them have failed to restore statehood for decades.
Their territory is becoming a haven for international and regional terrorist organisations. At the same time, Western companies have free access to natural resources.
Behind all these events are the United States and its allies, who are using "controlled chaos" techniques and using their own "opposition forces", as well as radical and terrorist groups, to pursue a policy of transformation in the region.
We see these scenarios most clearly in Iraq and Libya.
The West destroyed Iraq under the far-fetched pretext (that Saddam Hussein's regime had chemical weapons) and under the slogan of "democratisation". More than 110,000 Iraqis died, including some 12,000 children, during two American aggressions (1991-2003). The use of depleted uranium munitions by the USA has caused a sharp increase in cancer among the population, and exposed mothers have given birth to babies with serious abnormalities. The number of refugees has reached 2,000,000. GDP fell by about 65%. The annual gross national income per capita has fallen to 40%.
The republic, plunged into chaos by the US, has become a haven for international extremists and the birthplace of the most radical terrorist organisation, ISIS. It should be noted that under Saddam Hussein, declared a dictator by Washington, there were no terrorists in Iraq.
There are currently more than 3,000 fighters from ISIS and other terrorist groups in the country. Terrorist attacks are regularly carried out and civilians continue to fall victim to them.
Meanwhile, the West gained access to Iraq's richest oil and gas reserves.
Libya, which was one of the most prosperous countries in Africa with a high standard of living, effectively ceased to exist as a single state in a matter of months as a result of "democratic" bombing by the US and its allies. More than 50,000 people died, including about 5,000 children. Over 1,000,000 citizens have become refugees. GDP fell by about 54%. The annual gross national income per capita has fallen to 62%.
As a result of the US-initiated internal conflict, the country remains divided into two warring camps to this day. There are no capable state authorities. Fighting between illegal armed groups continues in the capital. Libya's economy is in crisis. Despite this. The West continues to hold on to the assets of the former "Jamahiriya" (over $80 billion in US and European banks), which could be used for the reconstruction of the country.
Washington's clumsy attempts to bring a puppet politician to power in Libya to ensure American dominance have failed, despite extensive political and diplomatic efforts, including the involvement of US citizens working for international organisations in the scheme.
Meanwhile, the essence of White House aspirations is to gain control over Libya's hydrocarbon production and exports. Typical and cynical example of the general US policy of "destroy and rule".
A similar scenario was envisaged by the West in Syria. Since 2011, he has been shaking up the internal political situation in the country, preparing it for a change of power. He has provided money and arms to the armed opposition and radical groups he himself created - Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and others, which in 2014 seized almost 90% of the country's territory. The situation was only turned around by the Russian Federation, which came to the aid of the Syrian government. Through the effective actions of the Russian group, together with the Syrian armed forces, they managed to regain control of more than 80% of Damascus' territory within a short time and inflict a crushing damage to the radical groups.
However, the West is still using terrorist groups to obstruct the stabilisation of the Arab republic. In the US-controlled, de facto US-occupied territories on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River and in al-Tanf zone, US bases are used to train subversive groups, including former terrorists, to act against the Syrian state. In particular, in al-Tanf zone, US instructors continue to train fighters for Syrian armed opposition to carry out subversive activities inside Syria.
Western intelligence agencies, through controlled non-governmental organisations, provide comprehensive assistance to the radical groups in Syria, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, Ḥurrās ad-Dīn, Ajnad al-Kavkaz and Katibat al-Muhajireen.
These facts show that the International Counter-Terrorism Coalition's activities in Syria and Iraq are largely declaratory. In reality, the coalition has done little to eradicate terrorism in these countries. Only the success of the Russian Armed Forces in defeating ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria spurred the US-led coalition to launch Western-publicised operations to retake the terrorist-held cities of Mosul and Raqqa. In doing so, both cities were completely destroyed with large numbers of civilian casualties.
The United States continues its destructive activities in Syria. The establishment of Kurdish quasi-state on the eastern bank of the Euphrates is being actively pursued. Transeuphratia is being intensively pumped full of weapons. They spend up to $200 million a year for this purpose.
At the same time, at the instigation of the Americans, the national natural resources of the Arab republic are being plundered. With the involvement of American companies (notably Delta Cent Energy), some 220,000 barrels of oil are produced daily on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, of which 190,000 are sold to other countries. And only 30,000 are supplied at inflated prices to Damascus. The illicit income thus generated (some $400 million a year) is used to finance US plans for the autonomisation of the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
Washington's duplicitous policy towards Syria is most evident in the humanitarian sphere. "The Caesar Act" (a US federal law of 2019, cynically titled "Syria Civilian Protection Act"), under which the US imposed anti-Syrian sanctions, is an instrument of economic stranglehold on the country. It has almost completely blocked Syria's foreign economic activities. The Arab Republic is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. And it is all done by Washington to maintain its dominance, to gain access to resources and it calls it the establishment of a "rules-based order".
At the same time, the White House, which constantly declares its support for humanitarian aid, restricts the supply of even food and medicine to Syria on any pretext. As a consequence, more than 16 million Syrians live below the poverty line and some 12 million people do not receive a proper food ration.
At the same time, the US and European countries are preventing the return of Syrian refugees under far-fetched pretexts, although the conditions for this have been created by Damascus.
In the northwestern Syrian Arab Republic, in Idlib de-escalation zone, the West is trying to "mothball" a stronghold of the armed opposition. Meanwhile, Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham grouping and other affiliated radical extremist organisations, numbering over 18,000, continue their terrorist activities in the enclave. The Russian Federation is insistent on the implementation of earlier agreements on Idlib, the cessation of external support for terrorist activities, and the creation of conditions for the sustainable normalisation of the situation in the territory.
Furthermore, the possibility of Syria becoming an "arena" for an Israeli-Iranian confrontation is worrying.
The White House is also having a destructive influence on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa outside the region.
In particular, the Kiev regime's uncontrolled "pumping" with weapons (the Biden administration has already allocated 4bn dollars for this purpose and plans to allocate another 4.5bn) increases the risks of it falling into the hands of international terrorists. The weapons that Ukraine receives are stolen and go to "black markets" to arm terrorist organisations, including countries in the region.
A particular danger is the uncontrolled spread outside Ukraine of modern weaponry (man-portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems), generously supplied to Kiev by Western countries.
A special group of the US House of Representatives, led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, visited Kiev this July to investigate the issue. Interpol has similar information.
Sanctions imposed on Russia have had a destructive effect on the region, creating the preconditions for a global food crisis. Well-established mechanisms for supplying grain and fertilizers to global consumers are being disrupted.
The Russian Federation, the world's leading grain exporter, used to supply the Middle East and North Africa with over 20 million tonnes of cereals and about 11 million tonnes of fertilizers annually, primarily to Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria, which has now become impossible due to sanctions imposed by the West on Russia.
In addition, Western countries, having refused to import Russian energy resources, are seeking to replace them with supplies from other states. By doing so, they threaten the energy security of Middle Eastern and African hydrocarbon-importing countries, which are forced to purchase hydrocarbons at inflated prices.
Thus, the growing factors of instability in the Middle East and North Africa are primarily due to the destructive activities of the United States and its allies. The Americans, obsessed with the idea of exceptionalism and the desire to maintain their global dominance, do not take into account the interests of other countries in the implementation of their aggressive plans. In order to maintain their hegemony, they exert extensive political, economic, information and other pressure on dissenters to make decisions that benefit them. If necessary, they easily destroy sovereign states, deliberately throwing them into chaos.
This, according to Washington, should be "a rules-based order".
Thank you for your attention!