Syrian Crisis: A Dilemma For The Global Leaders

While the Syrian crisis has proved to be a political and diplomatic test for the world leaders, the human cost, migration crisis, the stalemate between US and Russia could drastically shape or determine the future relations between the two states. This, in turn, has the potential to impact the global politics as well.

The deadlock between the US and Russia reached to climax in the aftermath of the stalled cease-fire in Syria in the last month. Unsurprisingly, both the US and Russia continues to consider each other responsible for the impasse in Syria. In this context, the military control of an Um al-Shuqeef hill (near the north of Aleppo) by the Russian-backed Assad forces is used as a leverage to prevent the US from conducting airstrikes in the US.

The significance of Russia for the US leaders could also be understood from the number of times the Russian topic has been discussed in the Presidential debate. Similarly, the alleged Russian Cyber attacks on the US are part of same policy and security concern for the US. The massive bombing in the eastern Aleppo has increased the death toll and the humanitarian crisis for the Syrian. Moreover, Russia and the US are the two powerful actors of the crisis who have the political clout to put an end to the crisis in Syria.

Interestingly, it is assumed by many analysts that the restoration of Aleppo ceasefire could tone down the endless cycle of violence being inflicted on the innocent civilians, however, this may seem improbable especially if both the parties (The US and Russia) struggle to develop a consensus over the need to end the conflict in form of encouraging cooperation or improved relations between the two states. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that the agreement of both the players over Syria seems unlikely in the near future.

Moreover, some of the critic of ceasefire asserts that it is merely a mean to prolong the conflict in Syria in order to pursue ulterior motives of the powerful states, while the innocent civilians are left to bear the brunt of the crisis in form of mass causalities, force migrations, and turmoil. For instance, the Russian bombing of the hospitals and destruction of the rebel-controlled areas during the ceasefire is carried out under the guise of the so-called ceasefire. Similarly, American-backed forces have also taken the advantage of the temporary break in the violence to intimidate Russian-backed forces in order to secure national interests of the US and allies.

In the backdrop of ceasefire violations and perpetual deadlock between the US-Russia rivalries in the Syria, the failure of the two powerful states to contain the crisis reveal a sad picture, particularly for the innocent population of Syria. For instance, the Russian focus on the transfer of anti-defense missiles into the Syria provides a bleak picture in terms of attaining any drastic policy shift or change in the Syria which might put the displaced Syrians out of the misery.

Given the nature of gruesome conditions of the Syrian crisis, there is a need to seriously address the concerns of the victims of the proxy war in the Syria rather than focusing on the war of words and projecting biased opinions about the rival parties. Furthermore, the inaction of the world leaders has already worsened the crisis in terms of contributing to the scale of the crisis from a civil war to a global crisis.