James George
Jatras, a former US diplomat and adviser to the Senate Republican
leadership, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday
while commenting on the US intelligence chief’s recent warning that
tensions between the United States and Russia are spiraling into a
new Cold War.
Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper said Tuesday that the Russians
remained committed to an "assertive foreign policy,"
including efforts to hamper "Ukraine’s attempts to integrate
with Western institutions." "They're greatly concerned
about being contained," Clapper said in his testimony before the
Senate Armed Services Committee. Clapper said that Russia was
increasingly “paranoid” about NATO’s installation of a missile
system in Europe.
Jatras said
“General Clapper’s comments show a complete lack of imagination
of American policy makers.”
“We hear
all the time here in the United States, Daesh, Daesh, Daesh is a
great threat to the United States, but where does he put it in his
analysis? At number five! -- after Russia, China, Iran, and other
conventional actors in the international arena,” he added.
“I think
this clearly shows that the American policy makers are guided by the
interests of what people are calling the deep state that they’re
interested in huge budgets or military procurements, more than
anything related to the security of the United States, and rather
than working with other powers to reduce international tensions and
confront common enemies, like Daesh, and other [Takfiri] terror
groups, they are focused on rekindling a Cold War again,” he
stated.
“Unfortunately,
there’s nothing new now. It’s something that’s been going on
since the last few years. It is largely caused by the expansion of
NATO and by efforts to dominate the former Soviet states,” the
analyst concluded.
Relations
between the US and Russia have slipped to their lowest level since
the Cold War over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. The US and EU
have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia over
the conflict in Ukraine since early 2014.
Source:
Comments
Post a Comment