It is as clear as daylight that the ruling U.S. administration does not believe in the democracy that the modern world knows and follows. Since the start of the war on Syria in 2011, the U.S. government has been trying to slaughter Syria in the name of democracy by looting Syria’s oil resources through acts of aggression which only exposes an evil image of U.S. democracy itself.

As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pointed out in an interview with Channel One Russia on March 17, 2023, the years-long foreign-backed war in his country has proven that everything the West does runs counter to what it claims about democracy and humanitarian principles.

On March 24, the U.S. carried out airstrikes on several areas in Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria, near the border with Iraq, killing several people, wounding others, and causing material damage. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that at the direction of President Joe Biden, he had authorized precision airstrikes in eastern Syria "against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary [revolution's] Guards Corps."

It’s really a paradox that while the U.S. and its western allies have stressed sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Ukraine issue, the U.S. military’s latest aggression in Syria is a blatant example of its interfering in other countries' internal affairs and undermining their sovereignty and territorial integrity. This interference needs to be condemned. In plain words, Biden's boast of defending a more peaceful, prosperous, and democratic world has become ludicrous with the U.S. airstrikes on civilian areas in Syria unmasking American imperialism from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Syria to Yemen to Lebanon. 

The US missile attacks took place at a time when the ice has started to melt in the Middle East with the mediation of China. It is China’s diplomatic goodwill that finally brought the two arch-rivals in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia and Iran - to ink the peace agreement on March 10 that resulted in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two Gulf powerhouses after seven years of frosty diplomatic relations within two months. The Saudi-Iran-China accord which is “a victory for dialogue, a victory for peace” as in the words of Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, highlights China's international reputation as a pro-peace actor and neutral country in geopolitical disputes. 

Undoubtedly, the March 10 Saudi-Iran-China accord is very important and significant to put an end to geopolitical hostilities and instability in conflict-ridden West Asia which was traditionally controlled by the US. If the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia are normalized, it will help increase stability and security in the Middle East. As such, the China-felicitated Saudi-Iran agreement as well as the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Syria on March 24 is giving hope to the people of West Asian countries like Yemen and Lebanon which are facing severe economic crises. 

Many analysts believe that being baffled by the new Saudi-Iran-China convergence, the desperate Biden administration may have launched new airstrikes to maintain its influence by exacerbating instability in the entire Middle East. Justifying the U.S. military air strikes in Syria, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said that the U.S. strikes were a response to an “Iranian origin” drone attack on a U.S.-led coalition occupation base near Hasakah in northeast Syria on March 23 that killed an American contractor and wounded five US service personnel. Whatever the context, the U.S. airstrikes on Syria have indeed rekindled tensions in the Middle East region as Keyvan Khosravi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), warned the United States by affirming that his country will give a prompt response to any pretext for an attack on bases inside Syria established at the Syrian government’s request for the purpose of fighting terrorism.

Quoting Iran’s state Press TV, Al Mayadeen TV reported that U.S. missiles hit the Rural Development Center and the Grain Center near Deir Ezzor Military Airport in Syria.  The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the U.S. strikes on pro-Iran installations had killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias, and five non-Syrian fighters, according to a report published in The Jerusalem Post on March 25.

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Syria condemned the U.S. occupation forces’ brutal attack on its soil by stating, “The Arab country also urged countries worldwide to condemn the US acts of aggression and to support Syria in protecting and preserving its territorial and people's unity.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S.-led Western countries wanted to strengthen their grip on the Middle East to further expand their empire.  The whole world saw with amazement how the U.S.-led military alliance NATO launched a military invasion of Iraq, accusing it of possessing “weapons of mass destruction” on March 19, 2003. Actually, George W. Bush - Tony Blair duo - sought a monopoly over the oil fields by installing a puppet government in the name of establishing democracy in Iraq. The farce is that the weapons on which this unilateral attack was trumped-up were not found anywhere in Iraq even twenty years later. More importantly, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not authorized by the United Nations. Notably, the Iraqi group, “Liwa al-Ghaliboun” or “Conquerors Brigade” has taken responsibility for the drone attack on the U.S.-occupied base in Syria in response to the U.S. crimes in the country and elsewhere in the region.

As war-torn Syria faces a humanitarian crisis due to the February earthquake, the U.S. airstrikes are not only disappointing but also surprising. U.S. politicians who speak of human rights and humanity, stood as silent spectators while Syrian people are desperately struggling to save lives under the rubble. 

Following a series of “precision airstrikes” in Syria, President Biden adopted a blame game policy and warned Iran: “Make no mistake: The United States does not ... seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people.” But the bitter reality is that when Biden boasted to protect its occupation forces and interests in Syria, several U.S. lawmakers have once again demanded to bring back the U.S. troops from Syria.

Since 2014, the U.S. has repeatedly intervened militarily under the pretext of fighting Daesh and imposed strict sanctions on Syria. It even seized 80 percent of Syria's important oil-producing areas and gas fields and is looting them in the name of fighting the Daesh terrorist group in the Arab country. The bandit-like behavior of the occupying U.S. forces has led to a severe food crisis for the local people in Syria. The U.S. doesn’t actually want Syria's security.

Quite justifiably, the Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the airstrikes by the occupying U.S. forces on several civilian facilities in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour. “The US' claim to be present in Syria to fight Daesh, in whose creation [Washington] itself played a substantive role, is a mere excuse for the continuation of [the country's] occupation and plunder of Syria's national riches, including energy and grain," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani. 

It is worth noting here that Iran has established military bases in Syria at the request of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. As Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in an exclusive interview with PressTV of Iran on March 22 that Iran's presence in Syria is advisory, unlike the US' and Turkey's presence in the country, stressing that his country’s presence is taking place at the invitation of the Syrian government.

The United States and its western allies including Zionist "Israel" as part of their imperialist strategy are keeping the Middle East countries busy with rivalries to preserve their domination and conquest over the globe. America fueled the riots in Iran last year. On January 3, 2020, on the direct order of former U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. forces assassinated General Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of Iran's Quds Force and a pioneer in the war on terrorism, in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport. Iran’s advisory assistance helped Syria defeat the Daesh terrorist group and rid most of its soil of Takfiri terrorism.

The sole function of the U.S. administration is to provoke wars and conflicts in different parts of the world. America’s plot is to spread terrorism across the Middle East and reshape the map of the region. As such, the Chinese-brokered Saudi-Iran rapprochement has generated disappointment in the U.S. administration as it has literally eclipsed the U.S. influence in the Middle East and beyond. Washington would be well advised to fuel its own wheels instead of trespassing into other countries’ national sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as pillaging their national riches under the pretext of America's so-called slogan “War on Terrorism.”