Syria

If you cannot overthrow the tyrant, co-operate with him – after four disastrous years in Syria this seems to be the conclusion the international community has arrived at. Dr Bente Scheller, director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Middle East, comments on this simplistic approach to a complicated problem.

“It must be now clear to western defence chiefs that there is only one credible fighting force on the ground capable of fighting ISIS and that is the Syrian military. The Syrians [i.e. the Syrian regime] have held all the aces up their sleeve…” Such proposals are commonplace in diplomatic circles, but what is new this time is that this view is no longer limited to Assad’s supporters and allies.

More than six million Syrian refugees are in search of a different, a safer place in their home country and yet only arrive at places that are currently slightly less ghastly.

ISIS has plenty of funding, but it does not live on material sources only: one of their most powerful weapons is to commit the most monstrous atrocities - and make sure everybody sees them. Unable so far to stop them, Arab activists at least try and mock them, and the French foreign minister tries to ban them rhetorically where they want to be least: in the letter soup. Instead of their self-chosen name "Islamic State" he from now on wants to refer to them only by the acronym Daesh which they hate and try to ban by all means.

Large-scale religious-historical references are readily used to explain recent events in the Middle East. In reality, however, protagonists pursue mundane interests: money and power.

Do we expect that Lebanon, probably the most vulnerable of the host countries, will manage to deal with the refugee situation with international support? And, what is the situation in Turkey?

More than two years ago the Syrian Revolution started as a popular and largely peaceful protest against the brutal dictatorship of the Assad regime and the Baath Party. Even now, although the revolution has turned into a violent struggle for power, the popular call for rights, human dignity and a free and inclusive Syria are still part and parcel of the revolutionary movement. Yet, in two years time, the Revolution has turned into a civil war.