UN panel warns of spreading war
GENEVA — A UN commission on Syrian war crimes is sounding the alarm that the entire region is on the brink of war.
The background
The civil war in Syria is now in its fourth year. President Bashar Assad, re-elected to another seven-year term in a highly contentious vote, is accused of war crimes and other abuses. Fighting in Syria has killed more than 160,000 people. The UN Security Council has been paralyzed by inaction because Russia, a Syrian ally, holds a veto.
The latest
In a report Tuesday to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Commission of Inquiry said “a regional war in the Middle East draws ever closer” as Sunni insurgents fighting in Syria advance across Iraq to control areas bridging the IraqSyria frontier. The commission warned that the United States and Iran could be drawn into the conflict.
Syrian-Iraqi connection
The Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, has shown itself “willing to fan the flames of sectarianism both in Iraq and Syria.” The commission said Iraq’s turmoil will have “violent repercussions” in Syria, most dangerously the rise of sectarian violence as “a direct consequence of the dominance of extremist groups.” Meanwhile, Syrian opposition groups and extremists like ISIL and Al Nusra Front are fighting each other for control of the region while they’re battling the Syrian government. This could benefit Assad, the commission said.
Short-term effect
“Syrians live in a world where decisions about where to go to the mosque for prayers, to the market for food and to send their children to school have become decisions about life and death,” said the commission’s head, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian diplomat. Children are constantly in harm’s way, the commission said. Violence has reached unprecedented levels, people commit crimes with no fear of being punished and “impunity has made its home” in the warring country, where most civilians are killed by government attacks aimed at terrorizing the population.
Long-term effect
The atrocities and terrorist attacks in northern Iraq by forces affiliated with ISIL, which was inspired by al Qaida, will probably draw in more foreign fighters and other outside involvement, the commission said.