EVEN after seven years of a brutal civil war, there appears to be no light on the horizon for the Syrian people.

Over the past few months, it seemed as if the levels of violence had dipped following ‘de-escalation’ efforts and parallel peace parleys backed by different world powers and the UN.

However, the lull was illusory as over the past few days, there has been a serious uptick in bloodshed in the Arab country.

In the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian government has been carrying out a relentless assault to recapture one of the last major areas held by the rebels.

Though Bashar al-Assad’s regime, aided by Russian airpower, says it is battling ‘terrorists’, the assault has taken an unacceptably high civilian toll.

The UN secretary general has termed Eastern Ghouta “hell on earth”, with over 300 civilian casualties.

Elsewhere, in Afrin near the Turkish border, the situation is equally critical, as Turkish troops have crossed the border to battle Syrian Kurdish militants.

The Kurds have called upon the Syrian government to help repel the Turks, and in the past few days, there has been plenty of tough talk from both Ankara and Damascus.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Israel — long a destabilising force in the region — attacked multiple targets in Syria after one of its jets was shot down by Damascus for violating Syrian airspace.

It would not be an exaggeration to say Syria is one of the most volatile and complicated regions in the world today.

It was long feared that the civil war — which from the very start featured heavy external involvement — would expand into a larger regional conflict.

Today, it seems we have reached that grim stage; as the Iranian deputy foreign minister told the BBC on Thursday, fears of a regional conflagration sparked by the Syrian conflict are very real.

With the international order in disarray and multilateral diplomacy lacking impact, is it only a matter of time before a new regional conflict in the Middle East materialises?

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018