Reuters “World, please help us!” has been a refrain of Syrians under siege by their own government in Homs, Deraa and other cities. So far, though, it is probably President Bashar Al-Assad who has had more outside assistance, highlighting how a complex web of regional and global interests is stalemated over Syria, where a complex social mix is shaping up for a long confrontation. The bombardment of Homs this month prompted talk of Syria's “Benghazi moment” - when Western, and Arab, powers would feel compelled to intervene as they did in Libya last March, when Muammar Gaddafi's forces closed in on the rebel stronghold. That moment, though, may have passed for now. Russia and China have vetoed a Libya-style UN Security Council resolution condemning Al-Assad. Homs looks increasingly like a forlorn Sarajevo, Syria like a Balkan riddle, destined to work out bloody internal differences while the confrontation among external forces hinder swift victory for either side. That the Syrian rebels, themselves a fractious bunch, look to support ranging from Western democrats to Arab leaders, from Turkey to Al-Qaeda, is surely a mark of this complexity — as is the backing Al-Assad can count on from the clerical rulers of Iran and avowedly secular leaders in the Kremlin and Beijing. __
