A Quick Niggle on Syria.

Yesterday (30/1/12) much of the western media was reporting that there was fresh fighting in the outskirts of Damascus the Syrian capital. Although strictly speaking that day's fighting was new it's actually the end of a cycle of violence in the capital which saw the insurgents spring up in the suburbs of Damascus on Friday (27/1/12) to convince the UNSC that the situation was far more serious then it actually is. What we're seeing now is just the Syrian government mopping up the end of that effort.

You may remember that a similar thing happened in Libya when fighting broke out in the suburbs of Tripoli just before the UNSC met. We were told that this was a sign that Tripoli would soon fall but then the fighting was suppressed and eight months later Tripoli and Qaddafi were still standing. So I think all the fighting in Damascus demonstrated was how closely linked the Syrian insurgents are to the western powers that a taking the matter to the UN in order to sanction a foreign intervention that is already going on.