The number of people who have been killed in Syria has certainly exceeded the figure of 60,000, which was announced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Wednesday. This figure is lower than the actual number of casualties of the absurd war that is being waged by the regime against its people, which includes a large number of soldiers and officers from the Syrian Army, which remains loyal to the regime. It is certain that the Great Powers concerned with the Syria crisis, especially Russia and the United States, are aware that the number is higher. The figures that have been announced up to now certainly fail to include the large number of prisoners and detainees who have been liquidated; the world will later discover the mass graves where they are buried. These figures also fail to include the various massacres and atrocities that are difficult for pro-uprising groups of activists to reach, and document. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria, previously warned that the casualty figure would reach 100,000 people, and the number of refugees 1 million. Based on his discussions with the head of the regime, President Bashar Assad, Brahimi realizes that Assad will take his war against the uprising of the Syrian people to even greater lengths. Leading figures in the Syrian regime have informed mediators, allies and rivals that Assad will not surrender power, even if tens of thousands of people are killed. Members of the closed circle around Assad have been quoted in some circles as saying explicitly that they will not hand over power, even if 100,000 people are killed. They say that members of the opposition and the countries that support them will end up with a Syria and Damascus that will be destroyed if they insist on Assad's departure. The UNHCR has now announced the figure of 60,000 casualties, which is a huge number. The debate over responsibility for the hell that Syria is now experiencing is no longer about what the regime is doing, but over the responsibility borne by the regional-international political game. This game is turning Syria into an arena of conflict, with the head of the regime wagering his existence on some of the parties in the arena, disregarding the losses being suffered by the Syrian people and Syria itself. The regime is deluded into thinking that it can survive until the end, unaware that it is a toy that will end up the subject of a political deal, itself part of a larger deal, no matter how sharp the confrontation among the various parties to this game. The external conflict in Syria, and over Syria, is connected to something bigger than the country, and thus the fate of the regime is one of the easiest points to agree upon. The sad thing is that the rising number of victims is not what prompted the players in the regional-international game, especially Moscow and Washington, to provide political cover for the recent wave of contacts carried out by Brahimi, which ended in his failed visit to Damascus, as part of a bid to discuss the proposal of a transitional government with full power. Instead, it is the progress being made by the opposition and the Free Syrian Army on the ground, by launching the battle for Damascus, that is responsible for this. This wave of contacts subsided due to the Iranian regime's total rejection of the ideas generated about Assad stepping down over a series of stages in the coming months. This wave receded only because the battle to render airports non-operational – airports that are used by the regime to delay the progress of its enemies militarily, and there are 28 civilian and military airports that allow the regime to enjoy superiority in the air – has taken a long time to emerge. Thus, the launch of a new wave of initiatives to arrive at solutions is now waiting for new developments in the balance of military power. This means that the possibility of an international consensus on supporting Brahimi's mission will be based on an even bigger pile of Syrian wounded and dead. The ruling clique in Damascus is deluded in thinking that the regime's excuses for rejecting the Brahimi proposal, like saying that Assad has carried out reforms such as abolishing the Emergency Law and the Constitution's provision of Baath Party dominance, and his readiness to pardon those who have fought against the regime and engage in dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood, might convince their interlocutors. This delusion is equal to the belief that the countries working to bring down the regime, and which defend it with weapons, money and even fighters, can enter a global or even limited war because of this regime, or for its sake. Even Iran, which pretends to accept Assad's excuses that he has carried out reforms, or is ready for dialogue, acts in a way that strengthens the excuses of the opposition. Tehran does this by launching and re-launching initiatives that call for reconciliation and dialogue, which means implicitly that it is unconvinced that the regime has engaged in dialogue, or seeks a reconciliation. As for the threats of a global conflagration, Iran recently carried out maneuvers in the waters of the Gulf, and which were begun by Russia in the Mediterranean. This was preceded by maneuvers by the US and western countries in Jordan and in Israel. Such threats are a delusion because these states have enough to deal with, due to their economic crises, so that they will reject battles that cost them more of their capabilities under such conditions. Moreover, these maneuvers are proof that they prefer negotiation to fighting. These countries have no need for war, as long as there are already 60,000 Syrians who have been killed on behalf of the countries that are engaged in war there.
