More violence not the answer in Syria

http://gulfnews.com/

The pace with which western action on Syria has developed over the past few days has been worrying. Western states have lined up to offer military solutions to the conflict, provoking their international adversaries to issue their own warnings. The solution in Syria is not to fuel an even larger confrontation by further arming one party in the conflict or its adversary, as some in the West have suggested. It is time to stop settling international scores between major powers and focus on saving more lives from being lost in the war-ravaged country. Further arming the Syrian rebels will only lead to Bashar Al Assad’s allies to drum up their own support for his regime, further fuelling the cycle of violence. The tragic events of last week should perhaps be used as an opportunity for the international community to push the threatened and cornered Al Assad to go to the negotiating table. The international fury over the massacre in Ghouta has weakened him enough to be pressured into negotiations. His closest allies, including Iran, have said that those responsible for the alleged chemical attack should be held responsible. The advances made on the ground by the regime in the past few months were significant enough for the opposition to reject negotiations from a position of weakness. Now, the tables have turned and the regime knows it faces tough choices. Western states, instead of rubbing their hands in anticipation of invading yet another Arab country, should recognise that this is a chance to finally find a solution to the conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.A call for negotiations, however, should not mean that the perpetrators of last week’s massacre should go unpunished. Under no circumstances should a negotiation process — and the subsequent concessions that may be made by the regime — be presented as the regime’s ‘way out’ from being held accountable for this massacre, if it is proven to have been responsible for it. Or indeed for its other 
crimes.