Syria’s war has made her a liability rather than an asset to Iran, Hezbollah and militant Palestinian groups. Syria is now the “weakest link” in a Shiite-Muslim dominated crescent that runs from Iran through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. Faced with an enormous refugee flight from this war torn country, Turkey’s border is filled to overflow with refugee camps and Lebanon is seeing a daily influx of Syrians as well. Meanwhile, Russia’s “special relationship” with Assad continues to confound the West.
Barbara Slavin is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and is Washington Correspondent for Al-Monitor.com, a new website devoted to news from and about the Middle East. She is a regular commentator on U.S. Foreign Policy and Iran on NPR, PBS and C-Span, and the author of: “Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the US and the Twisted Path to Confrontation”.
