Skip to footer

Syria in crisis: The key players in the deepening conflict

Russia’s intervention into Syria has been described as a “game changer.” The conflict has attracted a kaleidoscope of local, regional, and international players all vying to prevail. Here's a guide to who’s who.

3. Which countries support Assad?

Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP
In this photo made from footage taken from the Russian Defense Ministry's official web site on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, a bomb is released from a Russian Su-34 strike fighter over Syria.

The two main countries supporting Assad are Russia and Iran, both longstanding allies of Syria. Until recently, Russia helped Assad in the diplomatic arena – vetoing UN Security Council resolutions against his regime ­– and by providing weapons and ammunition to the Syrian Army and Air Force.

In the past two months, however, Russia has significantly stepped up its assistance, dispatching jets and helicopters and hundreds of military personnel to a base in western Syria and carrying out hundreds of air strikes in the first two weeks of October. Russia’s intervention aims to expand its traditional influence at the expense of the West and possibly allow Moscow to have a powerful say in determining any political solution to the conflict.

Iran has been present on the ground since at least early 2013, helping marshal Shiite paramilitary forces, mobilizing and training loyalist militias, and providing billions of dollars in cash loans to aid Syria’s faltering economy. For Iran, Syria is a vital component of the “axis of resistance,” an anti-Israel alliance spanning the Middle East. It serves as a conduit for the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

3 of 7
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.