The Syrian Knot

In 2011, the Arab Spring brought a war to the previously safe Syria. Due to its strategic location of the country, major geopolitical regional and global actors turned to be involved in it. The USA and Middle-East monarchies wanted to replace the legitimate Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by any means, so terror groups took the side of the opposition and the country was flooded by Islamic radicals. As a result, the extremist Islamic State rooted in the weakened Syria; Jihadists from the “moderate opposition” are fighting against governmental troops “for democracy” and the war turned into a religious and ethnic massacre. Under a request of Damascus, Russia launched an air force operation against the terrorists and prevented Syria from sliding into chaos and supporters of “restoring the caliphate in al-Sham” from winning. However, no one knows what will be the end of the confrontation that took lives of a quarter of 1mn Syrians. Under the slogans of protecting democracy, the West and Middle-East monarchies continue playing their games.