Investigative journalist Pepe Escobar says Syria's enemies will not stop pushing for a war, warning that the CIA-trained militants have already entered into the country. Escobar, who works with the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online newspaper, made the remarks during an interview with Press TV on Tuesday. On Monday, the United Nations issued a report by UN investigators, which said sarin nerve agent was used in an attack that allegedly killed hundreds of people in the suburbs of Damascus last month. The UN team's mandate did not include assigning blame for the attack. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria as "a war crime" and demanded that the perpetrators of the deadly attack be brought to justice. Escobar said that the United States, France and Britain "want a Chapter 7 UN Security Council resolution which has the inbuilt possibility of launching a war against Syria in case of noncompliance, and they do not specify what kind of noncompliance would that be." "In fact, they want... an Iraqi-style Chapter 7 inbuilt possibility of an attack resolution. It won't pass the UN Security Council. We already know that. Russia and China will veto it, and the Americans, the French and the British, they know it. So probably, it is going to be a two-step resolution," he added. "The only possibility to have a resolution now is to have a non-binding resolution. Later on if there is a false-flag, if the inspectors are attacked by the rebels, for instance, sniper fire, it already happened before, then everybody goes back to the UN Security Council and probably there will be a second resolution," Escobar noted. Since March 2011, Russia and China have vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions proposed by European states threatening military action and sanctions against Damascus. Escobar also said that Qatari special forces and Israelis are on the ground in Syria and that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are providing logistical support to the militants. "The people who are being trained in Jordan by the CIA, they already crossed the border, they are already near Damascus and the so-called non-lethal weaponizing, according to the Obama administration, it has already started," he stated. "So, the weapons are flowing and the rebels are being reconstituted all over, from the Jordanian-Syrian border to the Turkish-Syrian border and to the outskirts of Damascus as well. These people who want war, they won't give up. It is simple as that," Escobar concluded. A recent British defense study shows that about 100,000 foreign-backed militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people. The extracts of the study by defense consultancy IHS Jane's were published on Monday. The analysis also said that a large number of extremists from foreign countries are also active in Syria. Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria. According to the UN, more than 100,000 people have been killed and a total of 7.8 million of others displaced due to the violence.

• published: 18 Sep 2013
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