After a decade-long torment from terrorist mercenaries deployed covertly by the Western powers, as well as overt aggression from NATO military forces illegally attacking the country and from cruel economic sanctions warfare, the people of Syria remain defiant and independent.

President Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for a fourth seven-year term after winning 95 percent of votes cast. The achievement is stunning. It completely refutes – indeed makes a mockery of – the Western narrative depicting Assad as a “tyrant”.

Despite all the grueling hardships, the Syrian people turned out in droves to vote on Thursday. The turnout was over 78 percent with more than 14 million votes cast out of an eligible 18 million electorate.

© REUTERS / OMAR SANADIKI

Videos: Bashar Assad Wins Syrian Presidential Election With 95.1% of Vote

There is no way the Western governments and their servile corporate media can spin this epic demonstration of popular defiance to their nefarious intrigues for regime change in Syria. Hence, the total silence among Western media about the election result. That silence is at once hilarious and damning of Western guilt over the real nature of the war in Syria. 

It was always a foreign war of criminal aggression. If there was any justice prevailing in this world, Western politicians by the dozens should be tried for war crimes.

Before the election this week, the United States, Britain, France, and other NATO powers tried to smear the Syrian democratic will, labeling the ballot as neither fair nor free.

Well, the sheer numbers of people turning out to vote and the subsequent scenes of jubilation across Syria tell another story, one that confounds the Western propaganda and exposes the criminality of the NATO powers and their toxic media.

The Syrian nation has refused to bow after years of NATO-backed terrorism in their country. They have chosen their president – again.

The same kind of shameful silence in Western media has been seen numerous times before when the Syrian army liberated towns and villages from Western-backed terrorists. When people came out to greet their Syrian army liberators, the Western media simply ignored the reality despite having told their consumers beforehand that the Syrian army and their Russian allies were committing slaughter against “rebels” and civilian populations.

© REUTERS / OMAR SANADIKI

Supporters of of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad celebrate after the results of the presidential election announced that he won a fourth term in office, in Damascus, Syria, May 27, 2021.

Not one Western mainstream media outlet has followed up to report on how Syrians feel about being liberated and of having their peaceful lives restored. That’s because Syrians would praise the leadership of Assad, the courage of the army, and the crucial help of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. In other words, the West’s lies would be demolished by the truth, and so their media are compelled to ignore and keep silent.

© AP PHOTO / SYRIAN PRESIDENCY FACEBOOK

Bashar Assad Marks 20-Year Anniversary as President, but Syrian War Shows No Signs of Dying Down

For everyone around the world who desires justice and peace and the defeat of imperialism, the victory from Syria’s election is a glorious day to celebrate. Congratulations are due to President Assad. But more so to the people of Syria who showed that it is possible to stand up to the real tyranny, that of the United States and its lawless NATO rogue allies who wanted to destroy Syria in order to install their own puppet regime. Despite unspeakable barbarities inflicted on the peace-loving people of Syria, they have remained steadfast in their unity and determination for independence, regardless of their different religions.  The NATO ploy of trying to incite a sectarian war among Syrians failed because they knew all along who their real enemy was. 

For those willing to see reality, Syria exposes the forces of evil in this world. The Western lying media tell us that Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and so on, are “bad” and are threatening global peace. The Americans and their NATO partners lecture and pontificate about “rules and order”. When it is they who are caught in the headlights of truth: they tried to destroy a country just like they have countless others. But that country – Syria – just showed its spectacular strength to overcome the evil designs of the United States and its minions in NATO.

Lamentably, Syria faces more trials and challenges from the continuing economic warfare being waged by US and European sanctions. Reconstruction from a decade of NATO aggression will not be easy. But with the help of Russia, China, Iran, and others, the Syrian people will win finally. They have just shown their invincible resilience beyond any doubt.

The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

During an 18 May press conference with his Icelandic counterpart Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Russia advances “unlawful maritime claims, particularly its regulation of foreign vessels transiting the Northern Sea Route.”

“The regulatory scheme that Russia has put forward does not give due regard as required by international law to navigation rights, freedoms of the territorial seas and exclusive economic zone,” Blinken said, stressing that Washington “ha[s] and will respond” to this.

Responding to Blinken’s criticism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasised that “it has been absolutely clear for everyone for a long time that this is our territory, this is our land,” referring to Russia’s Arctic coast, related internal waters and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

New Dimension to Old Maritime Dispute

The US-Russia dispute over the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – also referred to as the Northeast Passage – has been flaring for quite a while and goes as far back as the 1960s. According to Moscow, NSR is a national transport route and subject to national legislation on historical grounds. Most of the NSR goes through Russia’s internal waters or EEZ with special national rules of navigation being applied to the passage.

The US does not agree with this approach and considers some of NSR’s straits to be international to which the regime of transit passage applies, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

SOVCOMFLOT

Sovcomflot LNG ship Christophe de Margerie and Russian icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy traverse the Northern Sea Route in February 2021, the first commercial cargo vessel to do so

While the row has on many occasions been resolved peacefully, the US Department of Defence’s new Arctic doctrine and Secretary Blinken’s renewed criticism of Russia have added a new dimension to this issue, according to Jan R. Weinberg, an American peace activist and founder of ‘Show Up! America’.

The Pentagon’s 2019 Arctic doctrine particularly names Russia a “strategic competitor,” a bit short of “adversary,” Weinberg notes.

According to the DoD, US interests in the region include “maintaining flexibility for global power projection, including by ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.” To that end, the Pentagon undertakes to “strengthen the existing, international rules-based order in the Arctic” to “deter strategic competitors from specific, aggressive acts and from unilaterally seeking to change norms governing access to the region.”

© AP PHOTO / STAFF SGT. DANIEL LOVE

In this Oct. 25, 2016 photo provided by the U.S. Army Alaska, paratroopers secure an area in view of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, during night live-fire training at Fort Greely, Alaska. The battalion spent much of Exercise Spartan Cerberus in subzero temperatures training in Arctic, airborne and infantry tasks.

US Pursues Its ‘Hegemonic Interests’ in South China Sea and NSR

The Pentagon’s self-declared goal of sustaining a rules-based freedom of navigation order in the Arctic resembles nothing so much as Washington’s justification of its military presence in the South China Sea, the peace activist suggests. In both cases, however, the US vows to protect UNCLOS rules which it has failed to ratify so far, he adds.

“It is patently absurd, while calling out other nations, that the United States has not ratified The United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” Weinberg notes. “I have not heard Secretary of State Tony Blinken advocate for the United States to ratify the UNCLOS treaty which would certainly lend authority to his accusations about the misuse of Russian and Chinese claimed Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).”

The South China Sea accounts for a third of global maritime trade with 80 percent of China’s energy imports passing through this waterway. The South China Sea maritime dispute appears to be more complicated than that involving the Northern Sea Route: China is laying claims to a large portion of the sea with all islands and their adjacent waters in accordance with its “nine dash line” concept. Neighboring nations have their own competing claims in the sea which makes it a highly contested area.

The Spratly Islands, comprising Subi Reef, Northeast Cay, Southwest Cay, South Reef, and Sandy Cay, are claimed by China, requiring prior permission or notification of transit under innocent passage in its territorial sea.

The United States, which is not part of the maritime dispute, has nevertheless declared itself an “arbiter” and protector of UNCLOS rules by dispatching warships to the region to conduct regular freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) there without requesting permission or providing notifications. Washington argues that none of the nations involved in the dispute has formally made a legal claim to a territorial sea around these features, according to Harvard’s Belfer Centre. However, Beijing has repeatedly signaled that it considers these passages provocative and a “serious infringement on China’s sovereignty.”

What the US Navy is really protecting in the South China Sea are Washington’s hegemonic interests, according to Weinberg, who asserts that America’s “Pivot to the Arctic” is about the same thing. While the South China Sea is carrying over $3 trillion in trade annually, the Arctic accounts for 22 percent of the world’s hydrocarbon resources, the peace activist remarks. “I believe that is why our military is there, even though they give lots of other reasons,” he notes.

© AP PHOTO / JAMES VAZQUEZ

In this Jan. 22, 2017, photo provided by U.S. Navy, the USS John S. McCain conducts a patrol in the South China Sea while supporting security efforts in the region.

Parallels: South China Sea & NSR

To assert its presence in both areas, the Pentagon is conducting a wide range of military exercises in the Arctic and in Indo-Pacific, including those involving the US’ NATO allies and partners, Weinberg notes.

The aforementioned military drills are conducted in close proximity to strategically important maritime routes:

·      the Malacca Strait, a waterway connecting the Andaman Sea and the South China Sea and a key oil trade chokepoint;

·      the Bering Strait, a strait connecting the Pacific and Arctic Oceans between Alaska and Russia and the most eastern point of the NSR.

The US-NATO military deployments near these crucial areas not only pose a threat to China and Russia, but also create a grave danger to international trade by stepping up risks and increasing potential costs, according to the peace activist.

“While Blinken professes to be ‘worried that the increased militarisation [of the Arctic on the part of Russia] will lead to bigger problems’ the United States conducted, under the auspices of the Indo-Pacific Command the Northern Edge 2021 military exercises which are based out of Alaska,” the peace activist says.

The US military deployment in the Arctic under the pretext of the alleged challenge posed by Moscow in its turn creates a threat to Russia, Weinberg highlights. Similarly, Barack Obama’s military deployments in Indo-Pacific region and FONOPs in the South China Sea within the framework of Pivot to Asia were perceived as a threat by the People’s Republic of China.

PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS CODIE SO

An MH-60R Seahawk assigned to the “Saberhawks” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 lifts off the flight deck of America’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) while conducting operations in the South China Sea.

The similarity of the “Pivot to Asia” and “Pivot to the Arctic” is hardly surprising given that many Obama-era politicians have joined Joe Biden’s cabinet, the scholar points out. Some of them came to politics from the US military industrial corporations through the so-called “revolving doors,” Weinberg notes, referring to Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, who used to work on the board of Raytheon Technologies.

The parallels don’t end here: by beefing up its military presence in the respective regions, the US is equally pouring salt in Russia and China’s wounds, according to the peace activist. Thus, Washington’s agreement with Norway on building new US military deployments near Russia’s borders evokes strong memories of the Cold War and the West’s failure to deliver on its promise to not expand its NATO alliance eastward.

When it comes to China, the US naval presence in the Indo-Pacific coupled with Britain’s dispatching of an aircraft carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth there brings to mind the West’s Opium Wars against China and the Century of Humiliation, according to Weinberg.

The peace activist insists that those at the helm in NATO nations should bear these historic reminiscences in mind to avoid further escalation before it’s too late.