A “scramble for control” over a shattered country has made Syria a potential flashpoint for major powers. To understand the complexity – and potential global implications of the crisis – look no further than the Kurdish-held Syrian enclave of Afrin, write Liz Sly and Loveday Morris in the Washington Post.
“America’s NATO ally Turkey is battling US-allied Kurds, who are receiving tacit support from the Syrian government. But the government is at the same time backing the tribal militias that have been attacking the US-allied Kurds and their US advisers in eastern Syria,” they write.
“Holding the overall balance of power is Russia, which became the dominant military power in Syria when it intervened on behalf of [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] in 2015 and now is awkwardly playing the role of both combatant and peace broker.
“But it is the significantly enhanced reach of Iran that poses the biggest danger of a wider conflict. Iran has provided the muscle in the form of manpower and money that enabled the Syrian government to reclaim most of the vast swaths of territory that fell out of government hands in the earliest years of the war, in the process expanding Iranian presence in Syria.”
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“America’s NATO ally Turkey is battling US-allied Kurds, who are receiving tacit support from the Syrian government. But the government is at the same time backing the tribal militias that have been attacking the US-allied Kurds and their US advisers in eastern Syria,” they write.
“Holding the overall balance of power is Russia, which became the dominant military power in Syria when it intervened on behalf of [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] in 2015 and now is awkwardly playing the role of both combatant and peace broker.
“But it is the significantly enhanced reach of Iran that poses the biggest danger of a wider conflict. Iran has provided the muscle in the form of manpower and money that enabled the Syrian government to reclaim most of the vast swaths of territory that fell out of government hands in the earliest years of the war, in the process expanding Iranian presence in Syria.”
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