Russia and Iran Warn Against Intervention in Syria

As a Western-led military strike on Syria appears increasingly likely in the wake of an alleged chemical weapons attack last week the Syrian government’s friends are warning the West that any attack could prove disastrous for the region.

According to the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Cameron Tuesday to tell him that there was no evidence that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons. And Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich warned in a statement the same day that military intervention in Syria without a UN Security Council resolution would have “catastrophic consequences.” In Tehran, U.N. Political Affairs Head Jeffrey D. Feltman, there for a regional security meeting, got an earful from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who warned Feltman, “The use of military means [against Syria] will have serious consequences not only for Syria but for the entire region,” according to an account by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi given to reporters covering the event. (Araqchi went on to state that Russia had already submitted to the U.N. Security Council “proof” that Syrian rebels, not regime soldiers, had used chemical weapons.)

These kinds of apocalyptic warnings are to be expected in times of heightened tensions, and when it comes to Syria, not entirely misplaced. The Syrian conflict is multi-layered, pitting not just the regime against the opposition, but Islamists against secularists, Sunnis against the country’s religious minorities, Iranian-backed Hezbollah against Saudi Arabia-funded militias and an Iranian, Chinese and Russian axis against a Western coalition bent on regime change. The potential for a full-blown conflagration that could engulf the region in a drawn-out proxy war cannot be overlooked.

TIME.com