THE shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey on Tuesday ratchets up the conflict in Syria and underlines the dangers inherent in the lack of a consensus among regional and world powers on the war in the Levant. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has justified the Turkish action, and support has come from President Barack Obama, but President Vladimir Putin has reacted angrily, calling the Turkish action “a stab in the back” in the fight against terrorism. So far, the Russian air force has flown over 1,000 combat missions, but the air strikes have been criticised by America, which says — although this is open to debate — that Russian planes were bombing not the militant Islamic State group but anti-Assad dissidents. Here is the rub — all powers are pursuing their geopolitical aims callously at the cost of the Syrian people. America and France are targeting the IS hordes, the Russians are working to the advantage of President Bashar al-Assad, Ankara’s sole concern is the Kurds doing the fighting against IS, while Jordan, after a brief spell following the burning to death of a Jordanian pilot by IS, is virtually out of the picture. Those pursuing their agendas ruthlessly are the various Islamist militias, especially IS, which continues to remain in possession of large swathes of Iraq and Syria. The only defeat it has suffered is the loss of Kobane to the Kurds.

In the three countries where the Arab Spring has turned into autumn, Syria has suffered the most: over 10 million are homeless, over 250,000 lie dead, and most of its cities have turned into debris. It all began when non-Syrian militias backed by some Gulf powers gatecrashed into what originally was a struggle for democratic rights and have since pursued their agenda with blood-curdling atrocities to turn Syria into a bastion of the so-called international jihad. The lament is that there is no realisation among those who matter that they should unite to give effect to the recent Security Council resolution authorising “all means” to degrade IS. Two oil powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are pursuing opposite aims, and Turkey has shown no interest in taking on IS. Mr Obama has asked Ankara and Moscow to lower tensions by talking, but that is hardly a solution to the slaughter in Syria. The issue is whether all regional and international players will subordinate their parochial, geopolitical interests to a vigorous and united anti-IS fight, and devise and implement a realistic peace formula for Syria.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015