Syria Unrest — International Points

Introduction

Syria is among the oldest locations the place civilization has thought to have began. Its capital, Damascus, is among the oldest repeatedly inhabited cities on the earth. All through historical past it has seen many adjustments, violent and in any other case.

At the moment it’s comprised of quite a few ethnic teams, largely Arab, although an inexpensive variety of Kurds, Armenians are additionally current. There have additionally been quite a few Iraqi refugees and the primary Arab group are themselves from completely different sects and denominations.

Round January 2011, following on from the Arab Spring the place protests towards ruling regimes erupted in quite a few Center East nations, protesters in Syria got here out demanding President Bashar al-Assad and his authorities step down. In response, Assad despatched in troops with some cities and areas being besieged for weeks and months. Each professional and anti-government protest gatherings have at occasions been giant.

Criticism of Syria’s crackdown has been fairly widespread. The Arab League has responded by suspending Syria’s membership. Syria claims that it’s combating an insurgency that’s terrorist by nature and claimed Al Qaeda is concerned. It has not been doable to confirm that declare so many see it as a cynical excuse.

The ruling regime is a sect of Shia, so has assist from Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, whereas the opposition is basically Sunni, thus receiving assist from different Center East nations, corresponding to Saudi Arabia and others.

1000’s have been killed — civilians and armed combatants. Some are asking the West for a navy intervention like there was in Libya, however the US specifically isn’t eager on one other navy intervention regardless that they’ve been brazenly hostile and demanding of the Syrian ruling regime for a few years.

China and Russia even have shut ties with Syria and so far haven’t been eager on any motion condemning Syria and have even vetoed some actions. Some papers have reported Iran and others serving to Syria with weapons, whereas others additionally talked about the opposition being armed by the West.

Mainstream media protection is after all a part of the difficulty; understandably the brutal regime crackdown has been met with shock, horror, and many others. However the protection has additionally been one-sided within the sense that comparable varieties of violence dedicated by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan don’t obtain comparable criticism, however a lot flatter and measured reporting as an alternative. Media Lens covers this level in far more element mentioning many propaganda issues in mainstream media protection and is price studying.

Again to high

The place subsequent?

<p>Anup Shah, <a href="https://www.globalissues.org/article/799/syria">Syria Unrest</a>, <cite>International Points</cite>, Created: June 05, 2012</p>