By: Frederic C. Hof, Atlantic Council
Two airstrikes — one by the coalition fighting the Islamic State group misdirected against a Syrian Army unit, and another apparently by Russian military air against a United Nations humanitarian relief convoy — seem to have shattered the prospects for a cessation of hostilities and joint American-Russian targeting of armed extremists.
The clear winners of this diplomatic unraveling are the extremists themselves and their symbiotic partner in the destruction of Syria and the murderous dispersal of Syrians: the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The obvious losers are Syrian civilians. They will likely remain the principal targets of the Assad regime, Russia, Iran, ISIS and the terrorist band formerly known as the Nusra Front. And nothing politically good can or will unfold in Syria while civilians occupy the bull's-eye.
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s search for common ground with Moscow has had no shortage of critics, including this writer. The prospect of military collaboration between American and Russian militaries in Syria is troubling given the track record of Russian aerial assets, whose appetite for engaging civilian medical facilities is particularly appalling. The absence of consequences for noncompliance by the Assad regime with American-Russian undertakings is telling. The piling of risk onto the backs of Syrian rebels disposed to cooperate with the US is unworthy. Yet the undertaking has had one central merit: It aims to end mass homicide and collective punishment in western Syria, the overwhelming bulk of which is the work of the Assad regime and its two principal enablers: Russia and Iran.
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