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'Open-ended' Syrian conflict draws in region - CNN.com
In the two-plus years since President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on "Arab Spring" demonstrations, observers say the civil war that grew out of it has now become a multi-sided conflict that threatens to set the wider Middle East ablaze.
"The Syrian conflict is no longer an internal struggle between Assad and the internal opposition," said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. B
In the meantime, he said, Syrian society is disintegrating. And after more than 70,000 deaths inside the country, the conflict is increasingly jumping the borders.
........... ............
Turkish officials said the bombings were carried out by members of a former Marxist terror group with ties to Syria's intelligence services; Syria denied responsibility, but said Turkey ,a NATO ally, had been helping "terrorists" get weapons and money.
Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have backed Sunni rebel factions against al-Assad, a member of the Shiite offshoot Alawite sect. The European Union is lifting an arms embargo on Syria after Britain and France refused to agree to an extension.
France says Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Iran and Syria, has dispatched up to 4,000 fighters to Syria to bolster al-Assad's forces. Gerges said those fighters have "already produced major results," particularly in the ongoing battle for the strategically located border town of Qusayr.
Syria said Thursday that Russia, its most powerful ally, will deliver on a 2010 purchase of advanced anti-aircraft missiles. Moscow has defended the deal, saying it falls within international law and that the missiles aren't designed for use against civilians.
Gerges said the deal is a strong Russian signal to the West: "Stay away from Syria."
"Russia is the backbone of the Assad regime. It has provided them with arms. It has provided them with political support. It has used its veto twice in the (U.N.) Security Council. It has gone to great lengths to prevent any kind of military intervention in Syria," he said.
The United States has provided non-lethal aid and political support to the Syrian opposition, but the Obama administration has resisted calls to provide military aid to the rebels.
At the same time, Washington is trying to work with Russia to coax the opposition and the government to peace talks, concerned about "a region-wide conflict," Gerges said.
"That's why they have intensified their diplomacy to rescue Syria from really all-out destruction and also rescue the entire region from a region-wide conflict where American and international peace and security are really at stake," he said.
But the opposition Syrian National Coalition said Thursday that it wouldn't take part "when Syrians are constantly being hammered by the Assad regime with the help of outside forces," as George Sabra, its acting chairman, put it.
The opposition remains split along secular and sectarian, military and political lines. Those divisions have been "a real obstacle" to negotiations, Wright said.
"Both the United States and Russia have agreed that diplomacy is necessary, and they haven't been able to agree on that, even, for a long time," she said.
In the two-plus years since President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on "Arab Spring" demonstrations, observers say the civil war that grew out of it has now become a multi-sided conflict that threatens to set the wider Middle East ablaze.
"The Syrian conflict is no longer an internal struggle between Assad and the internal opposition," said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. B
In the meantime, he said, Syrian society is disintegrating. And after more than 70,000 deaths inside the country, the conflict is increasingly jumping the borders.
........... ............
Turkish officials said the bombings were carried out by members of a former Marxist terror group with ties to Syria's intelligence services; Syria denied responsibility, but said Turkey ,a NATO ally, had been helping "terrorists" get weapons and money.
Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have backed Sunni rebel factions against al-Assad, a member of the Shiite offshoot Alawite sect. The European Union is lifting an arms embargo on Syria after Britain and France refused to agree to an extension.
France says Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Iran and Syria, has dispatched up to 4,000 fighters to Syria to bolster al-Assad's forces. Gerges said those fighters have "already produced major results," particularly in the ongoing battle for the strategically located border town of Qusayr.
Syria said Thursday that Russia, its most powerful ally, will deliver on a 2010 purchase of advanced anti-aircraft missiles. Moscow has defended the deal, saying it falls within international law and that the missiles aren't designed for use against civilians.
Gerges said the deal is a strong Russian signal to the West: "Stay away from Syria."
"Russia is the backbone of the Assad regime. It has provided them with arms. It has provided them with political support. It has used its veto twice in the (U.N.) Security Council. It has gone to great lengths to prevent any kind of military intervention in Syria," he said.
The United States has provided non-lethal aid and political support to the Syrian opposition, but the Obama administration has resisted calls to provide military aid to the rebels.
At the same time, Washington is trying to work with Russia to coax the opposition and the government to peace talks, concerned about "a region-wide conflict," Gerges said.
"That's why they have intensified their diplomacy to rescue Syria from really all-out destruction and also rescue the entire region from a region-wide conflict where American and international peace and security are really at stake," he said.
But the opposition Syrian National Coalition said Thursday that it wouldn't take part "when Syrians are constantly being hammered by the Assad regime with the help of outside forces," as George Sabra, its acting chairman, put it.
The opposition remains split along secular and sectarian, military and political lines. Those divisions have been "a real obstacle" to negotiations, Wright said.
"Both the United States and Russia have agreed that diplomacy is necessary, and they haven't been able to agree on that, even, for a long time," she said.
