String-pullers of the war in Syria

by Thierry Meyssan

The neo-conservatives and the liberal hawks who have been preparing the war against Syria since 2001 have been relying on several states from NATO and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). While we know about the role played by General David Petraeus in launching and pursuing the war until today, two personalities – Jeffrey Feltman (number 2 at the UN) and Volker Perthes (Director of the main German think tank) – have remained in the shadow. Together with the support of Berlin, they have been using and are still manipulating the United Nations in order to destroy Syria.
Since 2005, the German academic Volker Perthes participated with the CIA in the preparation of the war against Syria. He heads the powerful European think tank, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs - SWP).
In 2005, when Jeffrey Feltman – then the US ambassador in Beirut – supervised the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, he relied on support from Germany, both for the assassination itself (Berlin supplied the weapon)¹, and for the UNO Commission charged with accusing Presidents al-Assad and Lahoud (prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, police commissioner Gerhard Lehmann and their team). The international campaign against the two Presidents was notably led by the German political analyst Volker Perthes².
Volker Perthes studied in Damascus, Syria, in 1986 and 1987, funded by a German research grant. He then went on to pursue a career as professor of political science in Germany, with the exception of the period between 1991 and 1993, during which he taught at the American University of Beirut. Since 2005, he has been the Director of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the main German public think tank, which employs more than 130 specialists, half of whom are academics.
However, when Feltman organised the Israeli attack on Lebanon in 2006, he implicated only the United States, hoping that once Hezbollah was beaten, Syria would come to its rescue in Beirut, which would provide an excuse for US intervention. Finally, Berlin sent only its marines to participate in the United Nations Forces (UNIFIL).
During the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Group, between the 5 June and the 8 June 2008 – five years before the war – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a presentation which underlined the necessity of overthrowing the Syrian government. She was accompanied in this task by the Director of the Arab Reform Initiative³, Bassma Kodmani (future founder of the Syrian National Council), and the Director of the SWP, Volker Perthes. The Bilderberg Group is a NATO initiative, and NATO directly handles security for these meetings⁴.
According to a cable revealed by Wikileaks, Volker Perthes advised Ms Rice concerning Iran. He believed that it would be dangerous to launch a military operation which could have unpredictable regional consequences – it was, however, more efficient to sabotage its economy. Volker Perthes’ advice was followed, in 2010, with the destruction of the software of Iranian nuclear plants by the “Stuxnet” virus⁵.
In March 2011, Volker Perthes published an opinion column in the New York Times mocking President al-Assad’s speech to the People’s Chamber, during which the President had denounced a “conspiracy” against Syria⁶. According to Perthes, the “revolution” was under way in Syria, and al-Assad had to go.
In the summer of 2011, the German government managed the breakthrough of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia and Egypt. It noted that at the CIA’s demand, it hosted the international coordination of the Brotherhood in Aachen. Berlin thus decided to support the Brotherhood everywhere they attained power, with the exception of Hamas in Palestine, in order to avoid annoying Israel. Under the influence of Volker Perthes, the German Minister for Foreign Affairs – at that time, Guido Westerwelle – persuaded himself that the Brotherhood was not “Islamist”, but “guided by Islam”. He created a discussion forum with the “moderate Islamist movements” (sic!), and a Task Force for Syria. As for Perthes, he organised a reception at the Ministry in July for a delegation from the Syrian opposition, led by Brother Radwan Ziadeh.
On 6 October 2011, on the proposition of the State Department, Volker Perthes took part in the closed conference organised by the Turkish Industry & Business Association (Tusiad) and the private US intelligence company Stratfor in order to study Turkey’s energy options, and also the possible responses of eight other countries, including Germany⁷. Present at the meeting were the ten top Turkish fortunes and Taner Yıldız – the Minister for Energy – the man who was supposed to help the Erdogan family organise the funding of the war with oil stolen by Daesh.
In January 2012, Jeffrey Feltman – then State Department director for the Near East – asked Volker Perthes to direct the “The Day After”* programme, which was tasked with putting together the next regime in Syria. These meetings were held over a six-month period and resulted specifically in a report which was made public after the Geneva Conference.
“The Day After” mobilised 45 members of the Syrian opposition, including Bassma Kodmani and the Muslim Brotherhood. It was financed by the US Institute of Peace, the equivalent of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), but is under the authority of the Department of Defense. Also solicited were Germany, France, Norway, Holland and Switzerland.
“The Day After” drew up the first draft of the plan for the total and unconditional capitulation of Syria, which became the obsession of the United Nations once Jeffrey Feltman was nominated Director of Political Affairs for the United Nations, in July 2012.
At the official inauguration as number 2 of the United Nations Jeffrey D. Feltman swore the oath in the presence of the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on 2 July 2012. From now on, the organisation that would promote peace was actually under the control of the hawks among the “liberals”.
Here are the principles of the Perthes-Feltman plan:
•    the sovereignty of the Syrian People will be abolished;
•    the Constitution will be repealed;
•    the President will be relieved of his functions (but a vice-President will remain in charge of formal functions);
•    the People’s Assembly will be dissolved;
•    at least 120 leaders will be considered guilty and banned from any political function, then judged and condemned by an international Tribunal;
•    the Direction of Military Intelligence, the Direction of Political Security and the Direction of General Security will be dismantled and dissolved;
•    “political” prisoners will be freed and anti-terrorist procedures will be repealed;
•    the Hezbollah and the Guardians of the Revolution will be made to withdraw ; then, and only then, will the international community fight terrorism.⁸
At the same time, Volker Perthes organised the “Working Group on Economic Recovery and Development” for the “Friends of Syria”. In June 2012, under the co-presidency of Germany and the United Arab Emirates, this group distributed to the member states of the “Friends of Syria” concessions for the exploitation of Syrian gas, which could be claimed in return for their support for the overthrow of Assad’s regime⁹.
Volker Perthes also organised the “Working Group on Transition Planning” for the Arab League.
Finally, he set up the “Syrian Transition Support Network” in Istanbul.
As from the Geneva Conference (30 June 2012) and the meeting of the “Friends of Syria” in Paris (6 July 2012), we can find no more public traces of Volker Perthes’ role, apart from his publications, which are aimed at maintaining Germany’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Germany is maintaining its policy, and after the abdication of the Emir of Qatar and the powerful rise of Saudi Arabia, nominated Boris Ruge – the director for Syria in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs – as its ambassador to Riyadh.
In the summer of 2015, during his visit to Damascus, the Syrian government asked Staffan de Mistura for an explanation concerning the Perthes-Feltman Plan, of which he had only just been made aware. Highly embarrassed, the special envoy of the General Secretary of the UNO confirmed that these documents did not engage him, and promised to take no notice of them. It seems that Moscow had threatened to make them public at the Security Council during the presence of the heads of state at the opening of the General Assembly in September 2015. However, the documents were not divulged – their revelation would have questioned the very existence of the United Nations Organisation. During the same period, Berlin once again made contact with Damascus, but the Syrians were unable to determine whether this secret initiative was a reflection of a new policy by Chancellor Merkel, or one more attempt at infiltration.
However, at the same time, Volker Perthes was nominated by Staffan de Mistura and his superior Jeffrey Feltman¹⁰ as a “peace negotiator” (sic!) for the next meeting in Geneva. He will be tasked with meeting alternatively with the delegation from the Syrian opposition and the delegation from the Syrian Arab Republic.
For the last three years, in violation of their own Charter, the United Nations, far from doing anything at all to help restore peace to Syria, and without presenting the slightest evidence, accuse the Syrian Arab Republic of having put down a revolution, of using chemical weapons against its own population, of the massive practice of torture, and of starving its people. Above all, it is dragging its feet on any peace initiative, leaving time for NATO and the Gulf
Cooperation Council to pilot the overthrow of the regime by foreign mercenaries, in this instance the terrorist organisations al-Qaeda and Daesh.

Keep in mind

•    Since 2005, the group assigned to preparing the war in Syria is being piloted by the US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman, assisted by the German academic Volker Perthes.
•    In 2005, Feltman organised the assassination of Rafiq Hariri (because the security of Lebanon was handled by Syria); in 2006, he organised Israel’s war against Lebanon (because Hezbollah was then armed by Syria); in 2011, he directed the 4th generation war from the State Department; since 2012, from the United Nations, for which he has become the number 2, he has been working to make the war last long enough for the jihadist groups to achieve victory.
•    Perthes associated himself with Feltman and the private group Stratfor in order to influence German policy in the Middle East. In 2008, he presented the project for regime change in Damascus to the Bilderberg Group. In 2011, he convinced Merkel’s government to support the Muslim Brotherhood during the “Arab Spring”. In 2012, he presided a work group tasked with preparing the new regime, then drew up a plan for the total and unconditional capitulation of Syria. Today, he is the UNO director for the Geneva peace negotiations.                            •

(Translation Pete Kimberley/Current Concerns)

*    The following two documents (PDF) dealing with the project “The day after” can be found as an attachment to this article on the internet.

1    According to the United Nations, Rafiq Hariri was assassinated by an explosive charge hidden in a van. However, this is impossible, considering the damage caused at the crime scene and especially considering the wounds caused to the victims. I demonstrated that the attack could only have been perpetrated by means of a new weapon which only Germany possessed at that time. In response to my work, the Special Tribune for Lebanon realised an extremely expensive reconstitution of the attack, using a French military base where the crime scene was entirely reconstructed. However, the Tribunal has never made public the results of this reconstitution, and persists in supporting the absurd thesis of a booby-trapped van. “Revelations on Rafik Hariri’s assassination”, by Thierry Meyssan, Gdnako (Russia) , Voltaire Network, 29 November 2010.
2     For example : “Syria: It’s all over, but it could be messy”, Volker Perthes, International Herald Tribune, 5 October 2005, p. 6.
3     The Arab Reform Initiative is a work group uniting experts from several think tanks and universities. It is an initiative by Henry Siegman (ex-director of the American Jewish Congress) in the name of the US/Middle East Project (USMEP) which works to promote Arab personalities favourable to Tel-Aviv.
4    “What you don’t know about the Bilderberg-Group”, by Thierry Meyssan, Komsomolskaïa Pravda, Voltaire Network, 9 May 2011
5     “WikiLeaks: US advised to sabotage Iran nuclear sites by German thinktank”, Josh Halliday, The Guardian, 18 September 2011
6    “Is Assad Capable of Reform?”, Volker Perthes, The New York Times, 30 March 2011
7    “Küresel Enerji Stratejileri Simülasyonu: Türkiye’nin Gelecek 10 Yılı”, Tusaid, 6 Ekim 2011
8    “Draft Geneva Communique Implementation Framework”, “Confidence Building Measures”, “Essential Principles”, “Representativness and Inclusivity”, “The Preparatory Phase”, “The Transitional Governing Body”, “The Joint Military Council and Ceasefire Bodies”, “The Invitation to the International Community to Help Combat Terrorist Organizations”, “The Syrian National Council and Legislative Powers during the Transition”, “Transitional Justice”, “Local Governance”, “Preservation and Reform of State Institutions”, “Explanatory Memorandum”, “Key Principles revealed during Consultations with Syrian Stake-holders”, “Thematic Groups”, documents and annexes presented by Jeffrey Feltman, non-published.
9    “The “Friends of Syria” divvy up Syrian economy before conquest”, by German Foreign Policy, Voltaire Network, 30 June 2012
10    The Italian Staffan de Mistura is Feltman’s deputy, tasked with directing affairs concerning Syrie. He succeed the Algerian Lakhdar Brahimi, who, incidentally, was one of Bassma Kodmani employers at the Arab Reform Initiative. “The Brahimi Plan”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Michele Stoddard , Information Clearing House (USA) , Voltaire Network, 29 August 2012

Source: <link http: www.voltairenet.org>www.voltairenet.org from 28.1.2016