Morales Says Syria Important for Control over Middle East, Criticizes US Handling of N. Korea
MOSCOW-Bolivian President Evo Morales has stressed that Syria “has strategic importance for control over the Middle East.”
“I’m convinced that 30 percent of the world’s hydrocarbon resources are concentrated around Syria. It brings us back in history, when empires under the rule of monarchies divided the resources. Today the empires carry out interventions, using military bases and submarines, in pursuit of the same goal – to gain control over natural resources,” Morales said in an exclusive interview with RT.
In early April, Bolivia was the one to call a closed-door of the UN Security Council after Trump administration ordered missile strikes on Syria’s Al Shayrat Airbase in response to the alleged chemical attack in Idlib, unfairly blamed by Washington on the Syrian government.
US Handling of N. Korea ‘Selfish, Conceited Mindset’
On the North Korean issue, Morales said that the US is among states which have a “selfish and conceited mindset” regarding the North Korean issue.
“I don’t understand how the governments of some countries, the US president, for example, have such a selfish and conceited mindset. Every administration should think of humanity in the first place and respect nation’s identity, equality of states,” Morales told RT en Espanol.
Tensions have been escalating between Washington and Seoul on one side and Pyongyang on the other in recent months.
While the US and its Western allies slammed North Korea over its missile tests, Pyongyang lashed out at Washington over its deployment of the THAAD missile system to South Korea and joint military drills with the South.
US Preparing for War with North Korea: Analyst
Meantime, American analyst Bruce Gagnon told Press TV that the administration of US President Donald Trump is gearing up for war with North Korea, citing the US military’s recent missile and nuclear bomb tests as the giveaway signs.
The US Air Force on Wednesday test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, a move that is expected to escalate simmering tensions with North Korea over its development of missiles and nuclear weapons.
The timing of the test was questioned by peace groups, with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation calling it a “double standard.”
The US has warned Pyongyang of a military confrontation if it does not stop its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
“Washington is preparing for war with North Korea because they dare to test missiles and develop nukes,” Gagnon, the secretary and coordinator at the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, told Press TV on Wednesday.
“Testing missiles is not illegal under international law, the US and its double-standard allies do it all the time,” he argued. “But North Korea is not in the club, thus they are called rogue.”
“This hypocrisy is chilling, blinding, nerve-wracking, heart-stopping and infuriating,” he added. “The exceptional Pentagon moves the world step by step towards the World War Three.”
Referring to Trump’s secret meeting with all members of the US Senate, Gagnon said the president was “likely selling war.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Pentagon began transporting parts of the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system to a planned deployment site in South Korea.
Hamda Mustafa