Luna Chebel, Advisor To Syrian President: We Support The Russian Operation; Sanctions Only Hurt The West; Once Russia Wins, The West Will Come Running Back

Former Al-Jazeera journalist Luna Chebel, who currently serves as an advisor to Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, said in a February 28, 2022 interview on Russia Today TV that Syria supports the Russian military operation in Ukraine. She said that Western sanctions, such as the actions taken against Russian airlines, hurts Western countries more than Russia, and that they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. She added that once Russia emerges victorious from the conflict, the Western countries will come running back to Russia. In addition, Chebel said that this would be similar to Western behavior during WWII when, as she claimed, Western countries supported Hitler, but "reversed course" and came to share in Russia’s victory.

Luna Chebel: "Damascus supports this [Russian] military operation, because when a country's national security is being threatened, it cannot remain silent and stand idly by.

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"In the past decades, the Western countries have turned this world into a jungle. The law of the jungle says that only the strong survive, and this mean that Russia has the right to defend its national security.

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"Who will suffer more [from the sanctions]? The West or Russia? Let me give you a simple example. Now, they have banned Russian flights over the entire EU. In return, Russia banned flights by all the countries that had banned it. Russia is the largest country in the world. So when it bans all these airlines from flying in its airspace, it hurts those who were banned, and not the other way around.

"This brings to mind a British saying - and Britain plays a major part in this anti-Russian hysteria... This reminds me of the British saying: 'Cutting off my nose to spite my face.' This is exactly what the West is doing with these sanctions.

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"Usually in politics, there is no such thing as a 'point of no return.' This 'return' always takes place when one of the sides is victorious. So when Russia emerges victorious, you will see the West come running back to Russia. If you remember, this is what happened in the World War. Everybody supported the Nazis, but when Russia was drawing close to a victory, they reversed course and came to share in Russia's victory.

"So I believe that the point of no return has to do with Russia's victory."