Saudi Arabia and Qatar are financing and arming Syrian gangs

“We hear Saudi Arabia and Qatar openly speaking about their financing of the armed opposition and supplying weapons to the armed opposition… So, we do not like that,” Churkin said on Thursday.

Churkin also voiced concern regarding the latest massacre in Syria's Hama Province in which tens of “people on the side of the [Syrian] government were killed by opposition.”

The Russian ambassador then expressed opposition to the US and its allies for attempting to sideline Iran, adding that Tehran should be included in efforts to peacefully resolve the crisis in Syria.

This is while UN-Arab League envoy to Damascus Kofi Annan has highlighted the role of Iran in helping to end the crisis. He also warned against foreign intervention in Syria, saying such a move would only intensify the violence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged the opposition to stop killing Syrian civilians.

An interview with Mohsen Saleh, professor at the Lebanese University, to hear his opinion on this issue.

Mr. Saleh, something that has been raised at the UN Security Council was the role of the region in the Syrian crisis. We had Russia accuse Saudi Arabia and Qatar and saying that they have been financing equipping the opposition. At the same time, we had Kofi Annan saying that Iran can play a crucial role here.

So what do you think that role by Iran could be and how do you think that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have influenced things in Syria?

Saleh: Well first of all the Russian Ambassador is right when he is saying that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are assisting the gangs in Syria and these gangs receive orders from Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to commit all these atrocities to take them to the UN [Security] Council or to the General Assembly.

And I guess he is right also in pointing that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should take the responsibility of all these atrocities against the civilians. At the time when they talk about the regime and the army they really help finance arm these gangs and as well they ask the United Nations in order to take certain procedures from military or economic sanctions … and all of these parties in the region are participating in accelerating the situation in Syria.

Also Iran can play a role and it is playing a role in terms of calling the parties to come and sit on the table and have a real political dialogue in order to solve the situation.

And also Russia and China doing the same thing, bringing these people into the table but the problem is with the opposition and with the Qataris and Saudis.

They refused to sit with the regime in order to solve the situation and I guess it is possible to solve the situation by participating in the regime or in the unity government but of course these people have a kind of hate towards the regime and Bashar al-Assad and they want to remove it. They pressure also the Secretary General [of the United Nations]. The Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton is saying things … [which amounts to] intervening in the internal affairs of some countries whether in Egypt or in Tunisia or now of course in Syria.

Right Mr. Saleh, we are looking at the situation on the ground now, would you say that Kofi Annan’s peace initiative has now come to a complete failure and that this will cause a civil war in Syria and whether that situation could actually cause a foreign military intervention?

Saleh: Kofi Annan could not get the consent of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stop their financing or arming of these gangs in Syria. How could he reach a solution or succeed in his initiative unless he could pressure these two regional countries to stop their assistance to these gangs?

And the United States and the West, they want that because they got the money also, they have been bribed also to do so, to threaten the government sometimes by sanctions, sometimes by freeze on [their assets] … in order to pressure the regime to accept the conditions of the Americans which have been rejected by the regime from 2003 when Colin Powell came to Syria and asked them to surrender to the American and Israeli conditions.

And that is what the Saudi Arabia and Qatar want from Syrian regime in order to surrender to the American will and to the Israeli will. That is the issue. That is the issue between Syria the resisting power in the region and who are refusing all these conditions and the conditions of Saudi Arabia and the Americans.