NEW DELHI, December 9. /TASS/. The current developments in Syria have put the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at risk, retired Indian diplomat Melkulangara Bhadrakumar, an expert in international security, told TASS.
"What is at stake is the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and the disintegration of the country as a state," he noted, adding that "the country in its present shape, founded in 1946, may altogether vanish from the map of West Asia."
According to the expert, this may happen because of Turkey and Israel, who seek to "carve out their respective spheres of influence in Syrian territory." "The weakening of the Syrian state, especially the incoming security apparatus in Damascus, gives Turkey for the first time a free run in the northern border provinces where Kurdish separatist groups are operating," he explained.
According to Bhadrakumar, "the renewed calls that are heard jointly from the Astana group (Moscow, Tehran and Ankara) and the regional capitals for intra-Syrian dialogue leading to a negotiated settlement have a ring of unreality stemming out of primeval fear over the manifestation of an extremist variant of political Islam that the region had never experienced before in their history."
"Certainly, the current international climate virtually rules out any such prospects of ‘dialogue’ in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, the entire region is likely to be convulsed by the tremors out of Syria," the analyst added.
On November 27, Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on the positions of government forces in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. By the evening of December 7, they seized several big cities and on the next day, entered the Syrian capital of Damascus, while the army withdrew from the city. Bashar Assad stepped down as president and left the country following intra-Syrian talks.