“I have said numerous times. I think there’s no question that Hillary Clinton will succeed Obama next year, just a few months away,” Lendman told Press TV on Thursday.

Lendman was commenting on a statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry in which he criticized Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, describing it as "irresponsible and profoundly ill-advised."

Kerry alleged that Russia and the Syrian government “have rejected diplomacy,” and instead are “trying to pursue a military victory over the broken bodies, the bombed-out hospitals, the traumatized children of a long-suffering land.”

Lendman said Clinton is “morbidly anti-Russia, anti-Iran, anti-Syria, anti-world peace and security. She wants to escalate the conflict in Syria.”

“And if she does that, Russian forces will be threatened. There could be deaths. There could be Russian airplane shoot-downs, either willfully or accidentally,” the analyst observed.

“We’re talking about a scenario where America goes to war against Russia, that could turn out to be a nuclear war. It could happen in months or a year or two after she takes office. A very, very serious thing,” he noted.

Following the failure of US and Russian efforts to revive a failed ceasefire in Syria, US President Barack Obama is reportedly considering more sanctions against the Arab country.

Russia has been supporting the Syrian government in its campaign against terrorist groups operating in the country.

Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian air campaign, have managed to gain more ground against foreign-sponsored militants.

On Monday, the United States suspended bilateral channels with Moscow that were established to maintain the cessation of hostilities in the war-torn country amid rising tensions over the embattled city of Aleppo. The US has been working with Russia for months to try to secure a ceasefire in Syria.

S/SH 11