Former NATO Military Committee Head General Kujat Calls for ‘Grand Alliance with Russia’ To Stop the War in Syria

In numerous radio interviews Tuesday, former head of the NATO Military Committee (2002-05) Gen. Harald Kujat (ret.) stated, as on Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB): “It is my personal opinion that we should attempt to forge a Grand Alliance with Russia,” to stop the war in Syria, “and that means the West should in fact work together with the Russians.”

Kujat’s view is that the only reason the British and French want to be active with air strikes, is because they’ve heard the Russians might be coming. He added, though, that “airstrikes will not end this war.” When the RBB host pointed to U.S. concerns about a Russian military presence, and asked, whether such an alliance were realistic, Kujat responded, “I don’t know, but it depends here on the willingness in fact of the U.S. to contribute to a long-term solution, or not. In my view, it is necessary on political and military grounds to have an alliance. The political advantage is that, for example, we could get a United Nations mandate for a humanitarian intervention… And militarily, it has the great benefit that one doesn’t come to clashes between Western and Russian forces… What is separating us are different strategic goals. Russia naturally wants to sustain and strengthen the Assad regime and the West doesn’t want that, but, all should have the paramount goal of bringing this war to an end.”

Earlier in the morning, General Kujat told Nordeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) that the percentage of refugees in Europe represent a fraction of the refugees both inside Syria and in neighboring countries. He then raised the provocative question: Is it our goal to throw out Assad, “or, is it more important to end the war and thus the suffering of the civilian population?”

He also said Saudi Arabia and Iran should be brought in for a regional solution. Cooperate with Russia as they proposed in 2012, which was rejected, “and that was wrong,” he stressed.