Bashar Assad announced in a television interview three weeks ago that "Syria is at war." We must use all means at our disposal, he declared. Over the last 48 hours, it's not Syria at war, but the capital Damascus the very symbol of Alawite rule. Since Sunday, cab drivers have refused to take passengers to the south of the city, which has turned into a battlefield. The rebels claim that these battles signal the beginning of the end for Assad. The regime claims the exact opposite. Either way, the crucial, defining stage has begun. Both sides claim that they initiated the latest clashes, the most vicious since fighting began in mid-March 2011. Bloody battles are being waged in Kafr Sousa, Al-Midan and Tadamon. The Free Syrian Army, through its spokespeople around the world, might be seeking to emphasize that the "battle for Damascus has begun", i.e. the battle for Syria, but it's actually Assad's forces that initiated the move since the latest conflagration, paradoxically, plays right into Assad's hands. He isn't going to hold back when it comes to repressing these clashes, even if that means massacring his own citizens. The Syrian armed forces, buoyed by their recent successful maneuvers and the latest Russian arms shipments, basically want to rid the Damascus suburbs of the rebel forces that took up positions there a few months ago. The Free Syrian Army enjoys logistical support from the residents in the working-class neighborhoods of Damascus. The situation in Syria and Iran is so flammable that the Pentagon is moving up the date for dispatching the USS John C. Stennis supercarrier to the Middle East. But many more arms shipments will reach Damascus and Homs before the Stennis arrives. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continue to stall. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is set to visit Beijing to convince the Chinese to stop supporting the Assad regime. U.N. and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan journeyed to Moscow, where Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told him that Assad has to remain in power not because Russia is "defending him, but simply because a very significant part of the population in Syria stands behind him." Assad can hear the ongoing battles in Damascus from the windows of his palace. Unlike Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt, Assad cannot flee. The Alawite clan will not afford him that luxury. By the way, the International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that it now considers the Syrian conflict a civil war. And good morning to you, too.
