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Source: Press TV

The United States true motive in its “phony” war on ISIL is to create “warring statelets” in Syria and Iraq to “better control” them, a senior analyst says.

Ken Stone, a member of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, told press TV on Tuesday that the war, on which US President Barack Obama was briefed earlier, does not aim at “shutting down” the terror group.

“ISIL is a US asset… (that) provides a pretext or a Trojan horse for the US to maintain a military presence in Iraq and also to go for regime change in Syria,” Stone said.

US fighter jets, bombers and drones have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since last August. Since September 23, 2014, the US and some of its allies have also been conducting airstrikes inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

Apart from that, Washington has already dispatched thousands of troops to Iraq allegedly to help train and advise Iraqi forces in their fight against the terrorists.

After a Monday briefing at Pentagon, Obama said “We’re intensifying our efforts against ISIL’s base in Syria. Our airstrikes will continue to target the oil and gas facilities that fund so much of their operations,” calling the fight “not simply a military effort” but “a long-term campaign”.

Stone said, however, that the strikes are “few and far between”.

“The Syrian government conducts far more military missions per day than the entire US-led coalition.”

Contrary to Obama’s vows to “degrade and destroy” the Takfiri group, the US intends to “contain and to use ISIL”, he noted.

The US measures against ISIL have so far failed to stop the terror group from advancing.

Controlling parts of Syria, ISIL sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq in June last year and quickly seized large swaths of territory straddling the border between the neighboring countries.

NT/NT