Possibility of large-scale military conflict is increasing: opinion

The missile attack against Syria was quite an expected action and almost irreversible. There is no fatal imminence of a large-scale and local military conflict, but the general trend is showing that the chance of it happening is increasing, Russian political analyst Vitaly Zhuravlev has told EADaily’s correspondent.

“For this, there have been political pre-conditions and statements of the US, UK and French administration that the response will be like this to the chemical attack in Syria, although it is not known for sure if there was such an attack. But the key thing here is that the position on the missile strike was sounded and no discrepancy can be seen hereю The question was that this missile strike would not affect Russia directly, no Russian citizens should be injured, because this could result in a military conflict between Russia and the countries behind the attack,” he noted.

Zhuravlev supposed that in the near future there will be no more missile attacks in Syria as it was clearly stated that the strike will be directed against facilities that, according to data of intelligence of Western countries, deal with chemical weapons production or are involved in its alleged usage. Thus, the expert believes, the situation will be developing like it has been developing until now: the West will be toughening its stance against Bashar al-Assad, will not recognize his regime as a legitimate one, and the forces that were used for the missile strike will remain there.

“Evidently, the level if the military confrontation will remain tense. The difference will be that the situation will even more dangerous than it was until now. The forces involved in the conflict will continue balancing: Syria will remain the explosive hotbed where Russia and countries of the western coalition are antagonizing,” Zhuravlev said comparing the situation with cancer a human has and the question is when the metastases are spread through the whole organism.

As for Russia’s position, the expert believes it will remain the same. Moscow will continue supporting al-Assad, which is to be treated in the whole context of growing tension between Russia and the West. Zhuravlev noted that this will affect not only the international situation, but the social and economic development of Russia and Russian society. “The military rhetoric will increase on the background of decreasing living standards, as, unfortunately, the anti-Russian sanctions do have negative consequences. And, while there is no fatal imminence of a large-scale military conflict, nevertheless, the general trend is that the possibility of it is growing,” Vitaly Zhuravlev said.

On Saturday morning, the USA, Great Britain and France attacked Syria. According to a report of the Syrian General Staff, Western forces fired about 110 missiles against civil and military facilities, three people were hurt. Most of the missiles were shot down by the Syrian anti-missile defense. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the strike and aggression against a sovereign state.