Press TV: O.S.C.E. likely to inflame Ukraine situation: Analyst

Press TV

OSCE likely to inflame Ukraine situation: Analyst

Tue Apr 22, 2014


osce, ukraine
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Press TV has conducted an interview with William Beeman, author and radio host, San Jose, about the OSCE mission heading to Ukraine in order to de-escalate eastern tensions.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Where is the situation in eastern Ukraine heading? How much do you think the Geneva deal could deescalate the situation there?

Beeman: I don’t think that the Geneva group, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), is actually not going to be able to do very much because they’re going into eastern Ukraine in an area that’s absolutely opposed to Europe and the European Union.

The people in eastern Ukraine want very much to reunite with Russia; they don’t feel that the Ukrainian-Russian border is a real border and that really their ethnicity trumps any kind of formal state organization.

Obviously we all hope that they’ll be able to calm things down or that they’ll do something to calm things down, but my fear is that the OSCE is likely to actually cause more violence and inflame the situation even worse.

Without cooperation from Moscow this situation is not going to get better.

If we had for instance the OSCE operating in conjunction with representatives from the Russian government that might have some effect, but the OSCE operating unilaterally is not going to work very well.

Press TV: How much would the row between the US and Russia over the crisis in Ukraine have an impact on other issues that include the two powers such as the Iranian nuclear talks?

Beeman: Well, the United States and Russia are in a very tense situation over the Ukraine. But I’ve got to tell you that I am completely unclear in my own mind about what sort of interest the United States has in Ukraine other than simply trying to assure that Ukraine will develop closer ties to Europe rather than to Russia.

… so the US has a very weak stand with regard to the Ukrainian situation.

Until the Ukrainian people are able to actually express their own desires in this regard I don’t think anything much is going to happen.

The people in western Ukraine don’t seem to be willing to mount any kind of a military defense or anything that would actually prohibit the eastern Ukrainians from moving closer and closer toward Russia.

Press TV: Correct me if I’m wrong, what you’re saying is Ukraine is not worth the US going to war with Russia?

Beeman: I would absolutely say that and I think most American people would also agree that the United States… I don’t even know how we would pursue such a conflict logistically. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

I suppose that the United States could come across the border from an eastern European state, but the people of the United States have no appetite for external conflicts at this point and this is something that is either going to be handled diplomatically or it’s not going to be handled at all.

The hand of the United States in this situation is very weak.

SC/AB

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