„Syrian and Russian killing in Aleppo is humiliating the West, disgusting the global community, and challenging U.S. leadership. With elections only five weeks away, Washington has transition fever and is dithering. Unless it acts soon to raise costs to Syria and Russia, their forces could threaten more of the lives of the quarter-million people in Aleppo, and the Kremlin might think that in the future it can mount further challenges to the West and America. In many ways, the international community has failed Syrians over five-and-a-half years. In April, the United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria declared that 400,000 had died. Current, intensive attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo are raising this number. (…)
Moscow’s air power, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpsand Hezbollah militants helped stabilize the battle lines. But Mikhail Khodarenok, a prominent Russian military observer, warned recently that ‚Syrian armed forces have not conducted a single successful offensive during the past year,‘ and results of the fighting are ‚disastrous.‘ Like his father, Hafez Assad, who ruled Syria for three decades, Bashar is playing the Kremlin, undermining its strategic flexibility. (…) The Kremlin seems eager for a quick if gory end to the rebellion in eastern Aleppo. It doubtless wants the international fury to fade, although how much Moscow cares about global opinion is a question. In any case, Russia might think that an America in political transition will be less able to rally global condemnation.“
(Colin P. Clarke/William Courtney: „Only U.S. resolve can save Syrians“)
