Crisis in Syria: It remains ‘West’ vs East’

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/2015/10/crisis-in-syria-it-remains-west-vs-east/



Crisis in Syria: It remains ‘West’ vs East’
By Salman Rafi on October 13, 2015

While ‘the West’ is largely accused of orchestrating, directly and indirectly, the present phase of the conflict in the Middle-East, aided and abetted as it was (and still continue to be in many ways) by some of its ‘oriental allies’ like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, ‘the East’ seems to have taken on the responsibility of clearing the mess.

The mystery of IS’s ‘Toyota army’, that was recently resolved as it was revealed that the US did supply so many of Toyota pick-up trucks to what it believed was ‘free Syrian army’, had added substance to the role the US specifically played in setting Syria on fire. It has effectively put to test the theory of “non-lethal” supply and aid to the “moderate rebels”— a theory that the US continues to tacitly defend amid Russian campaign against IS.

As far as ‘the East’s role as well as its position is concerned, on the one hand, Russian air-strikes have IS on the run, on the other hand, Iran is also being gradually brought into a mediator’s position to end the conflict. Suddenly, ‘the West’ seems to have ‘discovered’ the potential role Iran can play in this behalf.

While Iran was not even close to playing a mediator’s role in the UN-sponsored Geneva 1 and Geneva 2 conferences held in 2012 and 2014 respectively to find a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Syria, the Iran-nuke deal seems to have enhanced its international prestige as it has now been “encouraged” by the UN Secretary General to convince Assad to bring a peaceful resolution to end the war.