It presents a complicated political problem according to the various interests of foreign powers . It would be another Libya . The U.S. of America or Israel will attack Iran .
U.S. officials are still looking to the U.N. and to Russia, a strong backer of Mr. Assad, to salvage any process leading to Mr. Assad's departure. Britain and France pledged to increase pressure on the regime, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague was in Moscow to try to gain Kremlin backing to force a negotiated political change at the top, similar to the way pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states prompted Yemen's president to step down earlier this year. "This could be a key moment," insisted a senior U.S. official working on the Middle East.
But few Western diplomats expected Russia to make any dramatic move to push Mr. Assad out. And while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was "deeply alarmed" by the massacre in Houla, he echoed the Syrian government in hinting that rebels were partly at fault and said, "both sides have obviously had a hand in the deaths of innocent people."
On Sunday, Syrian authorities said gunmen funded by foreign powers were responsible for the killings.
For its part, the U.N. was facing growing criticism that its observers inside the country aren't helping to prevent a government crackdown. "We have all been warning that Syria is on a path to civil war, to sectarian war, to increasing fragmentation, all with very dire consequences," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank and a former U.N. official. "We've been on that path now for quite some time and certainly the Annan mission has not done very much to take us off that path."
On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon defended the mission to the Security Council, writing, "There is a misconception, difficult to correct, about the role of unarmed military observers and what they can and cannot do."
With the situation worsening, Western diplomats cautioned that Syria presents a much more complicated political solution than Yemen, due to its intricate sectarian makeup and the numerous foreign powers with influence in the Arab country. Both Russia and Iran have emerged as the main financiers and arms-suppliers to Mr. Assad, while Turkey, the Gulf states, the U.S. and Europe have been backing opposition forces.
Many Arab officials have taken a more pessimistic tone in recent weeks, warning of a protracted civil war inside Syria that runs a risk of fracturing the country and spilling into neighboring Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. One scenario is that Syria becomes a failed state in which Mr. Assad maintains control of northern Syria and continues cooperating with Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with other parts controlled by al Qaeda elements and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. "This would breed continued instability across the region," said a senior Arab intelligence official.
U.S. officials are still looking to the U.N. and to Russia, a strong backer of Mr. Assad, to salvage any process leading to Mr. Assad's departure. Britain and France pledged to increase pressure on the regime, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague was in Moscow to try to gain Kremlin backing to force a negotiated political change at the top, similar to the way pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states prompted Yemen's president to step down earlier this year. "This could be a key moment," insisted a senior U.S. official working on the Middle East.
But few Western diplomats expected Russia to make any dramatic move to push Mr. Assad out. And while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was "deeply alarmed" by the massacre in Houla, he echoed the Syrian government in hinting that rebels were partly at fault and said, "both sides have obviously had a hand in the deaths of innocent people."
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Demonstrators protest Sunday in front of the Syrian consulate in Istanbul against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
For its part, the U.N. was facing growing criticism that its observers inside the country aren't helping to prevent a government crackdown. "We have all been warning that Syria is on a path to civil war, to sectarian war, to increasing fragmentation, all with very dire consequences," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank and a former U.N. official. "We've been on that path now for quite some time and certainly the Annan mission has not done very much to take us off that path."
On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon defended the mission to the Security Council, writing, "There is a misconception, difficult to correct, about the role of unarmed military observers and what they can and cannot do."
With the situation worsening, Western diplomats cautioned that Syria presents a much more complicated political solution than Yemen, due to its intricate sectarian makeup and the numerous foreign powers with influence in the Arab country. Both Russia and Iran have emerged as the main financiers and arms-suppliers to Mr. Assad, while Turkey, the Gulf states, the U.S. and Europe have been backing opposition forces.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images 
Special envoy Kofi Annan, center, spoke with U.N. mission chief in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, left, and Mr. Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, following the envoy's arrival in Damascus on Monday for talks with top Syrian officials.
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