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Syria's cross-border salvos send a message to Turkey, West to keep away
Syria's cross-border attacks on Turkey in the past week look increasingly like they could be an intentional escalation meant to send a clear message to Ankara and beyond, that the crisis is simply too explosive to risk foreign military intervention.With Turkey eager to defuse the crisis, the spillover of fighting is giving new life to a longshot political solution, with the Turks floating the idea of making President Bashar Assad's longtime vice-president, Farouk al-Sharaa, interim leader if the president steps aside. A military option -- which would involve foreign powers that already have expressed a deep reluctance to getting involved in the crisis -- is still not on the table, analysts say, despite six consecutive days of Turkish retaliation against bombardment from inside Syria. "Syria is aware that Turkey cannot go a step further," said Ali Tekin, assistant professor of International Relations at Ankara's Bilkent University. "The Turkish people don't want a war and there are no vital national interests at stake to warrant a war. Syria sees this." The Syrian conflict has taken a prominent role in the U.S. presidential election at a time when the U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for getting involved. On Monday, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said the U.S. should work with other countries to arm the Syrian rebels, allowing the rebels to drive Assad from power themselves. Romney did not call for the U.S. to directly arm the Syrian rebels. Posted by: tipper 2012-10-08 |
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