Washington and the US media seem to have no doubts about the Syrian government’s complicity in the Douma incident despite the fact that those who want America to stay in Syria have far more solid motives, Ron Paul told RT.

The assertion by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Washington is „confident“ that Syrian President Bashar Assad is culpable for the alleged chemical attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma does not stand up to scrutiny, Ron Paul, former congressman and founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, told RT. „I don’t know what they are confident about. They are confident in telling lies and hope people will believe it,“ he said. Mainstream American media don’t seem to need facts to back the White House’s claims, either. „Most of the time when a crime is committed in this country, the stations, when they are not sure, they carefully say: ‚this is allegedly‘ – but they never do this under these circumstances and they have zero bits of information,“ Paul pointed out.

While there are few questions in the US media over who is to blame for the alleged incident, the former congressman argues that Assad is the last person to suspect. „I think that least likely it would be Assad,“ he said, noting that the same goes for Moscow. „I cannot see any reason why Assad would do this, there’s no reason for Russians to have done that.“ Unlike Russia and Syria, the forces who want to see the US staying in Syria have a clear motive, Paul said. „There are so many who want to stir up trouble, and the people who want us to stay there,“ he said, suggesting that Trump’s recent promise to leave Syria „very soon“ might have prompted war hawks to take action. „I think the policy makers here did not want us to leave and somebody does it for them,“ he argued, stressing that „this whole idea that, all of a sudden, Assad is gassing his own people, is a total nonsense.“

Speaking about what drives the US to keep entrenching in Syria, Paul argued that the „ulterior goal“ here is to contain Iran. „It’s been Iran for a long time, and it has a lot to do with Saudi Arabia and Iran. I think that’s the number one,“ he said, adding that tensions between Sunnis and Shia are part of the conflict. „And then, there are neocons in this country who have their agenda – perpetual war for perpetual profits – and the military industry complex. And they all come together and then you throw in oil, and guess what, it’s bipartisan,“ Paul said of internal US motives that feed into the protracted conflict in war-ravaged Syria.

Speaking about Trump’s foreign-policy strategy in a broad terms, Paul noted that what should be taken into account is not the US president’s often self-contradictory statements, but his appointments that „got worse“ with John Bolton as part of his „war cabinet.“ „All of a sudden, neocons run the show. Therefore, that is what really counts. Now, John Bolton, he is really going to help us out on a sensible foreign policy!“ Paul said sarcastically, recalling Bolton’s hawkish record of preaching war in Iraq.