Jurriaan Maessen
Explosive Reports
June 25, 2013
Former secretary of state eyes breaking up of current-day Syria into “more or less autonomous regions”
In a very recent presentation at the Ford School, former secretary of
state Henry Kissinger commented on the current Syrian situation,
expressing his preference for a broken-up and balkanized Syria to emerge
out of the current Assad-controlled unity (from 19 minutes and 30
seconds onward):
“There are three possible outcomes. An Assad victory. A Sunni
victory. Or an outcome in which the various nationalities agree to
co-exist together but in more or less autonomous regions, so that they
can’t oppress each other. That’s the outcome I would prefer to see. But
that’s not the popular view.”
After being introduced by the chair as “the honorable Dr. Kissinger”,
the 90-year old power-broker began an interesting history lesson.
Kissinger detailed how the current state of Syria was designed by
European powers, as is the case with the neighboring state of Iraq:
“First of all, Syria is not a historic state. It was created in its
present shape in 1920, and it was given that shape in order to
facilitate the control of the country by France, which happened to be
after UN mandate. The neighboring country Iraq was also given an odd
shape, that was to facilitate control by England. And the shape of both
of the countries was designed to make it hard for either of them to
dominate the region.”
As a result of Syria’s a-historical origins, Kissinger explained, the
current Syria was conceived as a more or less artificial national unity
consisting of different tribes and ethnic groups. As the recent
“revolution” is further spiraling into chaos, Kissinger comments on the
nature of the current situation:
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