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Nobel Peace Prize winner and Izadi activist Nadia Murad says the alleged death of ISS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US raid over the weekend is not enough to compensate the victims of the atrocities committed by the Takfiri terrorist group.

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According To Iran News, A prominent American author and five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee shrugged off US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement about the death of Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) ringleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying it changes nothing worth bragging about.

“The trouble for the Democrats is that the public now expects Trump to be impeached, and killing Baghdadi won’t change that,” David Swanson, who is based in Virginia, said in an interview with Tasnim.

“Nor will it change significantly the situation in Syria or Iraq,” he said, adding, “A change worth bragging about would be a real withdrawal, a disarmament agreement, a weapons ban, a peace treaty, nonviolent peacekeeping, actual aid, or improved lives for people in Syria. We haven’t seen any of those things.”

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. Swanson was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial Foundation.

Tasnim: US President Donald Trump declared Sunday that Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead after a US military raid in northwest Syria over the weekend. In reaction, the spokesman for Iran’s administration, Ali Rabiei, shrugged off the US president’s announcement and said Washington’s policies are the main reason for the emergence of Daesh, adding that the death of Baghdadi does not mean that Takfiri terrorism or “Daeshism” has ended. Do you think the killing of the Daesh leader would play a major role in the fight against terrorism in the region or bring an end to the phenomenon given its root causes?

Swanson: You cannot promote the rule of law by loudly bragging about committing murder. You cannot end terrorism by committing terrorism. Here is a US president openly proclaiming that he has committed murder in order to let people be afraid they’ll be next. If anything fits the definition of terrorism, that does. The US public cannot see it because (1) whatever the US does is good, (2) Trump’s fans support anything he does, (3) loyalists of the Democratic Party believe that any crimes Barack Obama committed can never be crimes even if Trump commits them. But this crime is not just accepted; it’s a point of pride — a way to feel superior to other countries that have not murdered any terrorists or even created any terrorists to murder.

Tasnim: The US claims that it has started the withdrawal of its troops from Syria and says its forces shouldn’t be there. What was the main reason behind the US military operation? What do you think about the developments behind the scenes?  

Swanson: It is not a matter of anyone’s opinion that the United States has sought the overthrow of the Syrian government for years. The trouble is that the US public is not excited about destroying Syria; it’s excited about destroying ISIS. So, for years now, the US government has sought to appear to be attacking ISIS while attacking the Syrian government. This does not seem to have changed. Killing the leader of ISIS — six times thus far — builds US public support for the war. But the war is to overthrow the government of Syria, or — if that can’t be done — at least to steal a bit of its oil.

Tasnim: According to some analysts, the killing of the Daesh leader changes some things for Trump. It temporarily changes the political conversation away from the impeachment inquiry which began a month ago. What do you think? Wasn’t the operation a show-off for media attention? 

Swanson: The Democrats will jump at any opportunity to avoid impeachment, but just as the US government as a whole has pretended to put everything into attacking ISIS, while actually aiming at greater control of the world and of the US public, the Democrats have pretended to put everything into attacking Trump, while actually aiming at pleasing the same corporate oligarchs he serves. The trouble for the Democrats is that the public now expects Trump to be impeached, and killing Baghdadi won’t change that. Nor will it change significantly the situation in Syria or Iraq.

A change worth bragging about would be a real withdrawal, a disarmament agreement, a weapons ban, a peace treaty, nonviolent peacekeeping, actual aid, or improved lives for people in Syria. We haven’t seen any of those things.

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According To Iran News, The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said the intergovernmental organization “cannot personally verify the accuracy” of reports on the death of Daesh ringleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“We’ve taken note of the announcement by the President of the United States on the death of Abu Bakr al‑Baghdadi, the leader of the UN‑designated terrorist group Daesh,” Farhan Haq said in a press briefing Monday, Xinhua reported.

However, he said the UN “cannot personally verify the accuracy of this.”

“We trust the reliability of the various sources of information that have been speaking up, but, obviously, any sort of information would need to be verified by the various authorities on the ground,” he noted.

When asked why the UN was only taking note of, and not welcoming the death of Daesh chief who was killed in a weekend operation, Haq stuck to the wording and refused to welcome the development.

“This is one of the events that we’ve taken note of.  We’ve made very clear that any progress against Daesh is to be welcomed. The Secretary‑General and the many branches of the UN, including our offices dealing with political affairs, with counterterrorism and others, have repeatedly urged all Member States to work together in the fight against Daesh, and any progress against them is to be commended,” he added.

“Daesh has committed heinous crimes and brought tragedy and death to thousands of men, women and children. And we should take this moment to remember the victims and families of victims of terrorism,” Haq said.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had died during a “dangerous and daring” nighttime operation in Syria.

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“The Americans themselves have claimed and even confessed to have created ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. They (terrorists) have an expiry date, and whenever they are expired, they are destroyed (by the US),” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in an interview with IRIB on Monday.

“ISIS was eliminated by the youth of the (axis of) resistance. The nations and governments of Syria and Iraq, with logistical support from Iran and the pious people of the region, destroyed (ISIS) with their resistance. But Daeshism, terrorist ideologies, extremism and sectarianism still persist and have always been among the instruments used by countries like the US,” the Iranian spokesman added.

“We do not consider al-Baghdadi death as an end to terrorism and ISIS. Although we defeated ISIS with the (help of) regional governments and nations, we warn that the ideology is still alive, and their remnants may be reorganized by the Americans and carry out destructive operations in the region,” Mousavi added.

It is not surprising or strange that the US has raised such hullabaloo over the operation against al-Baghdadi, he added, describing the move as a trump card being played ahead of the US presidential election for domestic consumption.

“From our viewpoint, this (US operation) was not a great measure, because Daesh had been defeated by us and (other) regional countries. We should wait and see what plots the enemies of region have in mind for the region’s future,” the Iranian spokesperson went on to say.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has died during a “dangerous and daring” nighttime operation in Syria.

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“Russia’s defense ministry has no reliable information about an operation by US forces in the Turkey-controlled part of the Idlib de-escalation zone aimed at another extermination of Islamic State (Daesh) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” he said.

He said that the fact that the number of those who say about their participation in Baghdadi’s extermination and share contradictory details of the operation make one doubt that such an operation ever took place, the Tass news agency reported.

“We know nothing about any assistance to the flight of US aircraft to the Idlib de-escalation zone’s airspace in the course of this operation,” Konashenkov said.

Yet another report about the extermination of al-Baghdadi can hardly influence the situation in Syria, Konashenkov said.

“After Islamic State was ultimately defeated by the Syrian government army with support of the Russia aerospace forces in early 2018, yet another ‘death’ of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will have no impact either on the situation in Syria or on the actions of terrorists staying in Idlib,” he said.

US President Donald Trump said earlier in the day that they have caused Baghdadi’s extermination in an overnight raid led by US forces in Syria’s Idlib. He said that many of al-Baghdadi’s supporters and Islamic State militants had been killed as well. There were no casualties among the US military, he claimed.

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