As “violence only to terrorize and subdue” broke out in Idlib, the US, France and Britain convened an impromptu UN Security Council meeting on Thursday. The American representative slammed what she called an “unjustified military offensive” launched by Syrian government forces to defeat armed radicals led by Syria’s main al-Qaeda faction HTS – still better known as the al-Nusra Front despite multiple rebrandings.

Moscow’s envoy to the international body, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the complaints as hypocritical – noting that Washington never seems to care about any collateral damage but cries emergency every time Syrian forces make gains against the terrorists.

“The unplanned meetings have a common pattern now: we meet together precisely when the terrorists in Syria are under threat, and the Syrian government is regaining control of its national territory,” he said, adding that Damascus had a “right and duty” to fight terrorism in its own sovereign territory.

These terrorists, I’d like to remind you, are recognized as such by the Security Council.

Moscow already pointed out that Washington still often paints al-Qaeda-linked militants as “moderate rebels” and “legitimate opposition” merely seeking political change in Syria –despite the fact that HTS (in particular its core Nusra) is acknowledged as a terrorist group around the world, including by the US government. Under the Barack Obama administration, both the Pentagon and the CIA armed and trained various rebel fighters to the tune of billions of dollars in a failed bid to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, prolonging the bloody conflict by years.

Syria’s envoy to the Security Council repeatedly slammed American and Turkish operations in the country during Thursday’s meeting, stating they were “occupying” Syria and “pillaging” its resources, but he was interrupted by Security Council President Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve – prompting an objection from Russia.

Such plunder is an “openly stated policy” in Washington, straight from the president’s mouth, said Erik Sperling, executive director of the Just Foreign Policy non-profit organization.

“Donald Trump has repeatedly emphasized that one of the reasons that we are in Syria is to protect the oil, control the oil,” Sperling told RT.

I think there is somewhat of a double standard, given that the United States has prosecuted a global ‘war on terror’ that has led to drone strikes in dozens of countries.

Washington continues to protest the Idlib offensive for “geopolitical reasons” in a “quest to damage and… destabilize Syria,” Sperling went on.

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